Report  of  the 
Italian  Ghuroh  Reformation 
Gonni scion. 
October,  1872. 


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R  E  P  O  R 1 


OCTOBER,    1872, 


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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2009  with  funding  from 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


http://www.archive.org/details/reportoctober18700epis 


REPORT 


"Protc-stavSY  E^\scopa\  cV^u^rcV^ '\VA-l\>e     O.^.A 


OCTOBER,    1872, 


^ii\)t  €\)uxt[)  press: 

M.    H.   MALLORY   AND   COMPANY,    HARTFORD,   CONN, 

1872. 


(/ 


This  Report  has  been  printed  at  the  expense  of  a  tnember  of  the 
Commission  ;   those  interested  may  obtain  copies  of  the  same  by 
application  to  either  of  the  Home  Secretaries,   The  Rev* 
Charles  R.  Hale,  Auburn,  JV.  Y.,  The  Rev.  Albert 
Z.    Gray,  43  Fifth  Avenue,  New    York.     Con- 
tributions,   which   are    earnestly    solicited, 
should  be  sent  to  the  Treasurer,  /a?nes 
S,  Mackie,  No.  71  Broadway, 
{P.    O.  Box  5728,) 
New  York. 


Italian  (El)urd)  llcfonuatiou  (Homnussioii. 


The  Rt.  Rev.  A.  C.  Coxe,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Western  New  York,  Honorary  President. 
The  Rt.  Rev.  M.  A.  De  W.  Howe,  D.D.,  Bp.  of  Central  Pennsylvania,  Honorary  Vicc-Pres. 

The  Rev.  Noah  Hunt  Schenck,  D.D.,  Chairman. 


The  Rev.  Benjamin  I.  Haight,  D.D. 

The  Rev.  George  L#eeds,  D.D. 

The  Rev.  Eugenk  A.   Hoffman,   D.D. 

The  Rev.   Willi -m  Chaun'cv  Langdon. 

The  Rev.  Charles  R.   Hale. 

The  Rev.  Edward  A.   Foggo,  D.D. 

Frederick  S.  Winston. 

Henry  Chauncev. 

William  M.  Goodrich. 

James  S.  Mackie. 

Andrew  H.  DeVVitt. 

Ernesto  G.   Fabbri. 

S.    K.    ASHTON,    M   U. 


The  Rpv.  Samuel  Osg-^od,  D.D. 

The  Rev.  J.    H.  Rylance,  D.D. 

The  Rev.  Gkorge  H.  Houghton,  D.D. 

The  Rev.  Edwin  Hakwoop,  D.D. 

The  Rev.  John  Cotton  Smith,  D.D. 

The  Kev.  Albkrv  Z.  'tray. 

The  Rev.  Leight  jn  Coleman. 

Prof.   Francis  Philip  Nash. 

E.  R.  Mudge. 

Henry  Meigs. 

William  G.   Low. 

Nathan  Matthews. 

John  Stewart. 


The  Rev.  William  Chauncy  Langdon,  Foreign  Secretary. 

Care  of  Messrs.  Maquay,  Hooker  &  Co  ,  Florence,  Italy. 
The  Rev.  Charles  R.  Hale,  Auburn,    N.   Y.,         \  u         <,        ,      . 
The  Rev.  Albert  Z.  Gray,  43  Fifth   Ave.,    N.   Y.  S      ^"'^  Secretaries. 

James  S.  Mackie,   Treasurer^  No.  71   Broadway  (P'.  O.  Box  5728),  New  York. 


ISvecutibe  ffiommittre. 


The  Rev.  Benjamim  I.  Haight,   O.D. 
The  Rev.  Eugkne  A.   Hoffman,  D.D. 
The  Rev.  Edwin  Harwood,   D  D. 
The  Rev.  Smuel  Osgood,  D.D. 
The  Rev.  John  Cotton  Smith,  D.D. 


Wm.   M.  Goodrich. 
Ernesto  G.  Fabbri. 
S.   K.   Ashton,   M.D. 
Henry  Chauncy. 
Frederick  S.  Winston. 


Together  wi:h  the  Officers  of  the  Commission. 


loiut  (Eoiuiuittcc  of  ([general  (JTomjention  on  tl)e  Heligious 
Hcfovnt  in  Italu. 

The  Rt.  Rev.  W.  R.  Whittingham,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Maryland,  Chairman. 

The  Rt.  Rev.  G.  T    Bedell,  D.D.,  Assistant  Bishop  of  Ohio. 

The  Rt.  Rev.   W.  B.  Stevens,  D  D.,  Bishop  of  Pennsylvania. 

The  Rt.  Rev.  F.  D.    Huntington,  D.D.,  Bishop  ot  Central  New  York. 

The  Rev.  Benjamin  L   Haight,  D.D. 

The  Rev.  Noah  Hunt  Schenck,  D.D.,  Secretary. 

The  Rev.  George  Leeds,   D.D. 

The  Rev.  Eugene  a.  Hoffman,  D.D. 

Frederick  S.  Winston. 

Henry  Chauncey. 

William  M.  Goodrich. 

Prof.  Francis  Philip  Nash. 

The  Rev.  William  Chauncy  Langdon,  Foreign  Secretary. 


Dloasan  (Jlominittces  of  tl)£  Italian  €l)urrl}  Hifonnatioii 
(llciniini00iou. 


Albany  :  The  Rev.  ,W.    A.  Snively,  Hon.  J.  V.  L.  Pruyn,  Albany ;  Joseph  W.  Fuller, 
Troy. 

Central  New  York:  The  Rev.  E.  M.  Van  Deusen,  D.D.,  Utica :  The  Rev.  Charles  R, 
Hale,  Auburn:  The  Hon.  F.  W.  Hubbard,  IVatertown. 

Connecticut  :  The  Rev.  T.  W.  Coit,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Middletown. 

Long  Island  :  The  Rev.    N.    H.  Schenck,  D.D.,   Thomas  Messenger,   Wm.    G.   Low, 
Brooklyn. 

Maryland:  The  Rev.  George  Leeds,  D.D.,  C.  Morton  Stewart,  Samuel  W.  VVyman, 
Baltimore. 

Massachusetts:  The  Hon.  A.  H.  Rice,  B.  T.  Reed,  G.  P.  Denny,  Boston. 

New  York  :  The  Rev.  Benj.  I.  Haight,   D.D.,    LL.D.,  James  S.   Mackie,   M.D.,  New 
York;  Wm.  M.  Goodrich,  Poughkeepsie. 

Ohio  :  Larz  Anderson,  Abner  L.  Frazer,  Cincinnati ;  The  Rev.  W.  W.  Farr,  L.  S. 
Hubbard,  Sandusky;  the  Rev.  Lewis  Bui  ton,  D.D.,  Samuel  Mather,  Cleve- 
land; J.  W.  Andrews,  Columbzcs ;  Morgan  E.  Wood,  Dayton. 

Pennsylvania:  The   Rev.   E.   A.    HoflFman,  D.D.,  S.  K.    Ashton,  M.D.,  Philadelphia; 
The  Rev.  J.  Andrews  Harris,  Chestnut  Hill.,  Philadelphia. 

Rhode  Island:  The  Rev.   C.  A.  L.  Richards,   the   Rev.   C.  H.  Wheeler,  Providence: 
The  Rev.  George  L.  Locke,  Bristol. 

Western  New  York:  The  Rev.  Wm.  Shelton,  D.D.,  Livingston  Lansing,  Buffalo; 
The  Rev.  Henry  Anstice,  Thos.  C.  Montgomery,  Buffalo ;  H. 
L.  Smith,  LL.D.,  Francis  Philip  Nash,  Geneva. 


REPORT 


HOME    SECRETARIES, 


Soon  after  the  adjournment  of  General  Convention  in  l868,  the  Joint  Com- 
mittee on  the  Italian  Reform  Movement,  authorized  by  resolution  of  General 
Convention,  took  steps  for  the  formation  of  a  COMMISSION,  in  order  to  the  more 
effectual  carrying  on  of  the  work  entrusted  to  them. 

The  Italian  Church  Reformation  Commission,  at  its  organization,  November 
20,  1868,  declared  its  special  object  to  be  :  1st.  To  maintain  such  relations  with 
the  Italian  Reformers  as  shall  secure  to  our  Church  accurate  knowledge  of  their 
work.  2d.  To  render  them  such  assistance,  by  information  concerning  our 
Church,  by  Christian  counsel  and  otherwise,  as  may  be  acceptable  to  them,  and 
conducive  to  the  end  in  view.  3d.  To  provide  for  the  support  of  a  clergyman 
of  our  Church,  resident  in  Italy,  as  the  organ  of  communication  between  the 
Reformers  and  themselves.  4th.  To  diffuse  accurate  infomiation  throughout  the 
Church  as  to  the  progress  of  the  Reform,  and  to  act  as  the  channel  through 
which  the  liberality  of  its  members  may  be  judiciously  dispensed.  Last  October, 
at  the  expiration  of  the  tenn  for  which  it  was  appointed,  the  Commission  made 
to  the  Joint  Committee  a  report  of  the  state  of  the  Church  Refonn  Movement 
on  the  Continent  of  Europe,  and  more  especially  of  what  had  been  done  during 
the  three  years  last  past  by  its  Foreign  Secretaiy,  the  Rev.  William  Chauncy 
Langdon,  in  aid  of  such  movement  in  Italy.  This  report  the  committee  adopted 
as  its  own,  and  presented  to  the  General  Convention  with  the  following  resolu- 
tions, which  were  unanimously  adopted  by  both  Houses,  October  23,  1871 : 

Resolved,  That  we  again  commend  to  the  Church  the  great  cause  of  Religious 
Reform  in  Italy,  and  especially  the  interesting  and  effective  work  which  is  now 
being  done  in  that  Kingdom  by  the  Rev.  William  Chauncy  Langdon,  the  Foreign 
Secretaiy  of  the  Commission,  during  the  past  three  years. 

We  commend  his  zeal  and  discretion,  and  rejoice  in  his  marked  success  in 
communicating  to  our  brethren  in  Christ,  within  the  Church  in  Italy,  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  condition  and  circumstances  of  our  branch  of  the  Catholic  Church, 
and  our  sympathy  with  them  in  the  trials  of  their  faith  and  patience.  We  ask  the 
sympathy  and  cooperation  of  the  Church  in  behalf  of  his  important  labors. 

Resolved,  That  the  Joint  Committee  on  Religious  Reform  in  Italy  be  con- 
tinued, and  so  constituted  as  to  consist  of  twelve  Members,  viz.,  four  Bishops, 
four  Presbyters,  and  four  Laymen,  with  power  to  fill  all  vacancies  occurring  in 
their  number. 

.  Resolved,  That  the  Joint  Committee  thus  appointed  be  empowered  to  nomi- 
nate a  Commission  of  Presbyters  and  Laymen,  to  assist  them  in  discharging  their 
duties. 


A  meeting  of  the  Joint  Committee,  as  reconstituted,  was  held  in  the  Chapel 
of  Grace  Church,  Baltimore,  October  25,  1871,  when  it  was 

Resolved,  That  we  proceed  to  the  formation  of  a  Commission  on  Italian 
Reform,  to  consist  of  not  more  than  fifteen  Clergymen  and  fifteen  Laymen. 

Resolved,  That  this  Commission  be  entrusted  with  full  powers  to  prosecute  the 
work  for  which  the  Joint  Committee  was  created. 

Resolved,  That  the  following  persons  be  elected  members  of  this  Commission, 
and  that  this  body,  when  organized,  shall  have  power  to  fill  up  vacancies  in 
their  number.  [The  names  of  the  Commission  being  given  on  a  preceding 
page,  it  is  unnecessary  to  repeat  them  here.] 

Resolved,  That  the  Rev.  William  Chauncy  Langdon  be  elected  Foreign 
Secretary  of  the  Joint  Committee,  and  requested  to  return  to  Italy  for  the  prose- 
cution of  his  work. 

Resolved,  That  the  Foreign  Secretary  retain,  for  the  ensuing  three  years,  the 
same  relation  to  the  Commission  as  heretofore. 

The  present  Commission  organized  at  St.  Paul's  Clergy  Rooms,  New  York, 
November  7,  1871,  by  the  election  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Schenck  as  ChaiiTnan;  the 
Rev.  Wm.  Chauncy  Langdon  as  Foreign  Secretary;  the  Revs.  Charles  R.  Hale 
and  Albert  Z.  Gray  as  Home  Secretaries;  and  Mr.  James  S.  Mackie  as  Treas- 
urer. At  an  adjourned  meeting,  a  week  later,  the  Right  Rev.  the  Bishop  of 
Western  New  York  was  elected  Honorary  President ;  the  Rev.  M.  A.  De  W. 
Howe,  Bishop-elect  of  Central  Pennsylvania,  Honoraiy  Vice-President.  The 
Chairman  was  authorized  to  appoint  an  Executive  Committee,  consisting  of  five 
Clergymen  and  five  Laymen,  in  addition  to  the  officers  of  the  Commission.  The 
Foreign  Secretary  was  instructed,  so  soon  as  it  was  practicable  for  him  to  do  so, 
to  repair  to  his  field  of  labor  in  Italy. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Langdon  accordingly  sailed  for  Europe  about  the  ist  of 
December.  But  on  his  arrival  in  Florence  he  found  every  member  of  his  family, 
but  one,  seriously  ill.  In  a  week  he  was  himself  prostrated  by  disease,  which, 
for  some  months,  laid  him  aside  from  work. 

The  Commission,  at  its  meeting,  April  i6th,  had  the  pleasure  of  passing  the 
following  resolution  : 

Resolved,  That  we  tender  our  very  hearty  congratulations  to  our  Foreign 
Secretary,  the  Rev.  Wm.  Chauncy  Langdon,  in  view  of  the  recoveiy  of  himself 
and  the  members  of  his  family  from  the  visitation  of  deadly  pestilence,  and 
would  beg  to  unite  with  him  and  his  household  in  grateful  acknowledgments  to 
Almighty  God  for  His  preserving  care  and  restoring  power,  lifting  our  hearts  to 
the  great  Physician  in  adoring  ascriptions,  for  that  He  hath  defended  and  saved 
His  servants. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Commission,  Januaiy  16,  1872,  it  was 

Resolved,  That,  in  the  opinion  of  this  Commission,  it  is  eminently  desirable 
that  the  Right  Reverend  the  Bishop  of  Mainland  should  visit  Europe,  agreeably 
to  the  request  of  the  House  of  Bishops,  inasmuch  as  the  interests  entrusted  to 
this  Commission  would  thereby  be  very  greatly  furthered. 

Bishop  Whittingham  sailed  for  Europe  September  4th,  and  was  present  at 
the  meeting  of  the  Alt-Katholik  Congress  in  Cologne,  September  20-22.  It  is 
the  hope  of  the  Commission  that  the  Bishop  of  Maryland,  who,  it  will  be  borne 
in  mind,  is  the  Chairman  of  the  Joint  Committee,  and  who  has  ever  shown  a 
most  enlightened  interest  in  the  movement  for  Church  Reform  wherever  it  has 
manifested  itself,  may  also  be  able  to  visit  Italy,  and  carefully  examine  the  work 
there. 

Our  Foreign  Secretary  could  not  have,  as  to  the  perplexing  questions  from 
time  to  time  arising,  a  better  adviser  than  he  ;  and  there  is  scarce  any  one  whose 
opinions  would,  in  a  matter  of  the  kind,  have  such  weight  with  the  Church  as 
those  of  the  venerable  Bishop  of  Maryland. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Langdon  has  during  the  year  past  by  his  pen  and  in  other 
ways  done  good  and  effective  service  in' the  cause  of  Church  Refomr  on  the 
Continent  of  Europe. 


His  "  Five  Letters  on  the  Defects  of  our  Practical  Catholicity,"  addressed  to 
the  Right  Reverend  the  Bishop  of  Maryland,  have  received  warm  encomiums  from 
leading  minds  in  the  Church. 

He  has  been  requested,  on  behalf  of  the  Deniches  Merhir,  of  Munich,  the 
organ  of  the  German  Old  Catholics,  to  furnish  that  journal  with  stated  informa- 
tion concerning  the  condition  and  prospects  of  Catholic  Reform  in  Italy.  The 
Esperance  de  Ro7ne  announces  as  to  appear  in  its  columns  a  series  of  articles  by 
our  Foreign  Secretary  on  our  American  Church. 

Mr.  Langdon  has  by  special  invitation  taken  part  in  the  Old  Catholic  Congress 
at  Cologne.  A  very  able  letter,  addressed  by  him  to  the  Rev.  Prof.  Dollinger,  on 
the  Old  Catholic  movement,  has  been  published  in  German  at  Munich, 
republished  in  English  in  London,  both  in  a  separate  pamphlet  form,  and  in  the 
pages  of  the  Colonial  Church  Chronicle ;  and  has  doubtless  met  the  eye  of  many 
of  our  readers  in  the  columns  of  The  (Hartford)  Churchman,  of  October  6th 
and  13th. 

The  work  of  our  Foreign  Secretaiy  in  Italy  is  by  no  means  a  sensational  one. 
Many  facts  relating  to  it  are,  it  will  readily  be  understood,  not  of  a  kind  to  be 
made  public.  But  the  Commission,  basing  their  judgment  upon  the  observation 
of  several  of  its  own  members,  and  the  testimony  of  most  competent  witnesses,  are 
happy  to  testify  that  Mr.  Langdon's  work,  though  quiet,  is  most  7-eal,  so  that,  to 
use  the  language  of  the  Bishop  of  Western  New  York,  they  are  "  surprised  alike 
by  his  labors  and  his  successes." 

Several  interesting  papers  will  be  found  in  the  Appendix  to  the  Secretaries' 
Reports,  among  which  we  would  call  special  attention  to  the  extracts  from  pub- 
lished addresses  of  the  Right  Reverend  the  Bishop  of  Pennsylvania,  and  of  the 
Very  Reverend  the  Dean  of  Chester.  The  foiTner,  who  is  a  member  of  the  Joint 
Committee,  spent  a  part  of  last  winter  in  Italy ;  the  thorough  acquaintance  of  the 
latter  with  the  Italian  Reform  movement  is  well  known. 

In  conclusion,  we  would  ask  that  the  Report  of  our  Treasurer  receive  careful 
consideration.  From  it  will  be  seen  at  once  how  great  are  our  needs,  and  upon 
howy^7>7  comes  the  burden  of  sustaining  a  work  in  which  surely  many  feel  an 
interest. 

Respectfully  submitted, 

CHAS.  R.  HALE,1   rr        c       .     • 
A    7    CRAV*  >  Home  ^>ecretaries. 


REPORT 


FOREIGN    SECRETARY. 


Florence,  June  22,  1872. 
The  Revs.  Albert  Z.  Gray  and  Charles  R.  Hale,  Home  Secretaries,  etc. 
Rev.  and  Dear  Brethren, 

Among  the  first  duties  which  the  Commission  has  a  right  to  expect  from  me, 
upon  my  return  to  my  post  of  duty,  is  such  a  report  of  the  state  of  my  field  as  may 
serve  it  for  a  new  point  of  departure.  But  long  as  I  have  already  delayed  this, 
I  would  willingly  delay  it  longer  still.  Between  seven  and  eight  months  have 
interrupted  my  continuous  acquaintance  with  the  current  of  events, — four  months 
for  my  visit  to  America,  and  for  almost  as  long  a  time  immediately  after  my 
return  I  was  completely  withdrawn,  by  my  family's  and  my  own  sickness,  not 
only  from  my  work,  but  most  of  the  time  even  from  intercourse  with  others ;  and 
at  a  time  when  changes  are  so  many,  so  constant,  and  so  rapid  as  now  in  Italy, 
such  a  break  is  enough  to  alter  not  a  little  the  aspect  of  my  field,  and  create,  to 
some  extent,  the  feeling  that  I  have  to  begin  anew. 

Death,  too,  alas ! — as  when  I  returned  to  Italy  three  years  ago — has  again 
sundered  some  of  the  most  important  of  the  personal  links  which  connected  me 
with  the  reform  movement  here  ;  and  it  has  been  with  something  of  the  bewilder- 
ment caused  by  the  sudden  death  of  Dr.  Bianciardi,  that  I  have  addressed  myself 
once  more  to  my  work,  without  the  opportunity  of  taking  counsel  with  my  oldest 
and  one  of  my  dearest  friends  among  Italian  ecclesiastics,  Monsignore  Tosi,  and 
without  the  cooperation  of  Cav.  Civinini,  editor  of  the  "  Nazione,"  through 
whom,  principally,  I  had  enjoyed  access  to  the  public. 

The  opportunities  I  have  had  during  the  two  or  three  months  past — two  visits 
to  Rome,  such  Italian  correspondence  as  I  have  been  able  to  resume,  and  the 
diligent  and  daily  reading  of  several  newspapers — have  not  yet  sufficed  to  give 
me  a  satisfactory  understanding  of  the  present  ecclesiastical  and  religious  condi- 
tion and  prospects  of  Italy.  Such  a  statement  as  I  can  now  make  must,  there- 
fore, be  accepted  provisionally,  subject  to  such  modifications  as  further  means  of 
judging  may  lead  me  to  make. 

In  the  Report  of  the  Commission  to  the  late  General  Convention  it  was 
pointed  out  that  the  Catholic  Reform  Movement  must  henceforth  be  considered 
under  two  entirely  distinct,  though  closely  interdependent  aspects  :  the  reforma- 
tion, pure  and  simple,  considered  as  a  religious  and  ecclesiastical  movement,  and 
that  politico-ecclesiastical  preparation  for  reformation  which  consists  in  the 
modifications  yet  to  be  made  in  the  character  and  power  of  the  Papacy.  It  was 
further  pointed  out  that  the  leadership  of  the  fonner  has  been  clearly  assigned  to 


9 

Germany,  with  its  headquarters,  for  the  present,  at  least,  at  Munich;  while  the 
latter  has  been  as  clearly  assigned  to  the  new  Kingdom  of  Italy,  with  its  head- 
quarters, of  course,  at  Rome.  What  Dollinger,  Hyacinthe,  Huber,  Friedrich, 
Michaud,  Reinkens  and  others  are  to  the  one,  that,  not  Italian  ecclesiastics,  but 
Italian  statesmen  are  to  the  other. 

The  Italian  Catholic  Reform  Movement  is,  therefore,  now  and  henceforth 
absorbed  in,  or  rather  become  identified  with  and  dependent,  on  the  one  hand, 
upon  the  general  Alt-Catholic  religious  contests  going  on  chiefly  in  GeiTnany, 
and,  on  the  other,  upon  the  Italian  politico-ecclesiastical  struggle  gathering  in 
and  around  the  Parliament  at  Rome.  Considered  in  its  religious  aspect,  it  is  no 
longer  a  distinct  and  separate  force  whose  movements  we  might  follow  indepen- 
dently. It  has  taken  up  position,  and  is  now  the  left  wing  of  the  gieat  amiy  of 
Catholic  refomi,  whose  centre  i-ests  upon  the  Iser  and  the  Rhine,  and  whose 
right  upon  the  Seine.  True,  the  centre  only  has  thus  far  become  fully  engaged ; 
the  right  is  but  just  coming  into  action,  and  the  left  is  yet  awaiting  the  proper 
opportunity.  But  this  latter  is  not,  therefore,  to  be  any  longer  regarded  apart, 
nor  is  even  the  position  which  it  has  taken  up  to  be  understood  by  those  who  do 
not,  at  the  same  time,  study  that  of  the  main  army,  and  who  are  not  closely 
watching  the  action  in  every  direction  all  along  the  line. 

It  was,  therefore,  with  the  conviction  that  thus  only  could  it  be  able  to  follow 
up  the  first  and  most  important  branch  of  their  work,  that  the  Commission,  in  the 
report  above  referred  to,  recommend  that  it  should  be  henceforth  merged  in  or 
replaced  by  some  organization  of  wider  scope,  one  which,  like  the  Anglo-Conti- 
nental Society,  should  be  competent  to  address  itself  to  the  European  Catholic 
Reform  Movement  as  such,  without  those  limitations  to  the  range  of  its  investi- 
gations and  relations  which  were  appropriate  while  the  movement  was  confined 
to  Italy  alone.  In  their  wisdom  the  Joint  Committee  and  the  General  Conven- 
tion thought  otherwise,  and  the  geographical  restriction  which  had  been  placed 
upon  the  range  of  our  official  action  was  confirmed.  As  the  effect  of  this  course 
was  clearly  and  repeatedly  explained  to  several  of  those  who  took  the  lead  in 
this  decision,  it  cannot  be  supposed  that  it  was  unintended ;  and  as,  moreover, 
the  House  of  Bishops  concurrently  and  fonnally  expressed  their  judgment  that  it 
was  "  highly  desirable  that  the  Right  Reverend  the  Bishop  of  Mainland  should 
visit  Europe  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  the  state  and  condition  of  the  various 
reformatory  Church  measures  recently  manifested  there,  in  Germany  and  Italy  " 
(it  had  not,  at  that  time,  taken  form  in  France),  I  cannot  but  infer  that  this 
latter  proposition  was  designed  to  be  a  first  step  in  the  direction  of  some  such 
more  comprehensive  organization,  while  our  own  Commission  was  designedly 
restricted  to  the  consideration  of  the  more  political  and  local  asjDccts  of  this 
movement. 

While,  therefore,  I  had  before  felt  at  liberty  to  adapt  myself  to  what  I 
regarded  as  the  necessities  of  my  work,  and  to  follow  it  whithersoever  it  might 
lead  me,  I  feel  myself  now  precluded  by  this  decision  of  the  General  Conven- 
tion from  taking  any  official  cognizance  of  this  religious  movement,  save  in  its 
minor  and  local  manifestations.  My  report  will  accordingly  be  occupied  chiefly 
with  the  consideration  of  the  politico-ecclesiastical  conditions  and  prospects  of 
Italy,  and  my  official  activity  to  the  endeavor  to  avail  myself  of  such  opportuni- 
ties as  are  or  may  be  open  to  me  in  this  field. 

The  ecclesiastical  condition  of  Italy  to-day  is  the  natural  product  of  two  such 
factors  as  Romish  training  and  the  Law  of  the  Papal  Guarantees.  The  foiTner 
had  already  utterly  materialized  religion,  destroyed  the  religious  sentiment  and 
religious  principle,  and  taught  the  Italians  that  religion  consisted,  not  in  the  con- 
victions of  the  mind  and  the  affections  of  the  heart,  and  in  a  life  governed  by 
these,  but  in  the  outward  acceptance  of  a  system  of  dogmas  and  rites,  irrespective 
of  the  degree  to  which  that  acceptance  represented  any  inward  convictions 
whatever.  These  are  of  little  or  no  consequence,  so  they  do  not  interfere  with 
due  outward  conformity.  The  latter,  the  law,  under  the  vain  idea  of  thereby 
separating  the  Church  and  the  State,  has  only  disarmed  the  State  in  the  presence 


lO 

of  her  most  implacable  enemy,  deprived  all  the  patriot  and  reforming  clergy  of 
even  the  hope  of  protection,  and  delivered  them  up  wholly  into  the  power  of 
Jesuit  vengeance.  If  the  condition  of  the  liberal  clergy  was  deplorable  before, 
since  the  passage  of  this  law  it  has  become,  humanly  speaking,  hopeless  indeed. 
If  it  was  hard,  in  the  language  quoted  by  the  Dean  of  Chester,  in  his  address  to 
the  late  General  Convention,  "  to  face  the  horrors  of  martyrdom  in  the  ignoble 
form  of  starvation,"  it  is  still  more  difficult  when  the  certainty  of  martyrdom  is 
nearly,  if  not  quite  equalled  by  the  certainty  of  effecting  no  compensatoiy  good 
beforehand.  A  people,  and  especially  a  clergy,  who  are  taught  to  think  that 
there  is  no  necessary  connection  between  their  inward  convictions  and  their  out- 
ward professions  and  conduct,  will,  under  such  circumstances  and  with  the  rarest 
exceptions,  be  very  likely  prudently  to  cover  the  indignant  protest  of  the  intellect 
and  of  the  conscience  with  a  thin  veil  of  an  outward  acceptance  and  conformity. 

The  Italian  Government  have,  then,  for  the  present  at  least,  handed  over  the 
whole  field,  and  eveiy  ecclesiastical  refoiTner  in  Italy,  and  evei"y  ally  and  every 
check  against  ecclesiastical  tyranny,  and  even  against  ecclesiastical  conspiracy,  to 
the  sole  and  arbitrary  control  of  the  Vatican.  Indeed,  it  needs  a  pretty  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  real  inner  condition,  and  of  the  politics  of  Italy,  and  a  philo- 
sophical consideration  of  the  different  stages  through  which  she  must  inevitably 
pass  on  the  way  to  her  spiritual  regeneration,  not  to  be  profoundly  discouraged 
by  the  present  aspect  of  the  country. 

To  understand  these,  let  me  briefly  indicate  the  different  views  taken  by  the 
different  parties  into  which  Italian  politicians  are  divided. 

There  are,  first,  the  two  extreme  parties,  the  clerical  and  the  radical.  These 
— as  extremes  are  very  apt  to  do — agree  in  some  of  the  fundamental  principles 
of  their  political  syllogism,  and  differ  chiefly  in  the  practical  policy  which  must 
follow.  They  both  alike  agree  in  accepting  the  claims  of  the  Papacy  to  be  the 
embodiment  of  Catholicity  ;  they  regard  the  Vatican  obedience  as  exclusively  the 
Catholic  Church ;  and  Catholicism  (if  not,  indeed,  Christianity  itself ),  as  what- 
ever the  Vatican  defines  it  to  be, — no  more,  no  less. 

From  these  premises  the  clerical  party  deduces  the  necessity  of  obedience  to 
the  Vatican,  and  of  acceptance  of  its  dicta ;  the  duty  and  true  interest  of  Italy 
humbly  to  sustain  and  defend  the  Holy  Father  in  all  his  claims,  and  to  make  the 
civil  government  what  it  was,  as  they  hold,  designed  to  be, — the  temporal  arm  of 
the  Holy  Church,  the  king  the  prefect  of  the  Pope.  Either  ready  to  sacrifice 
Italian  nationality,  or  strangely  incapable  of  seeing  that  this  must  result  from  the 
consistent  application  of  their  principles;  clear-sighted  to  the  perils  of  infidelity 
and  religious  anarchy,  and  believing  that  these  will  inevitably  result  in  commun- 
ism, they  see  in  spiritual  despotism  the  only  bulwark  or  safeguard  against  these 
evils,  which  are  unquestionably  now  threatening  society.  This  party  is  small — 
at  least  it  is  so  in  the  Lower  Chamber  of  Parliament— but  it  embraces  many  of  the 
representatives  of  the  old  nobility,  the  highest-toned  families  which  have  inherited 
from  generations  of  the  old  regime  the  dignity,  culture,  knowledge  of  affairs, 
influence,  together  with  the  deeply-rooted  prejudices  of  their  class.  It  has  no 
possible  chance  of  getting  possession  of  the  government,  but  it  possesses,  never- 
theless, an  influence,  from  the  fact  that  among  a  large  body  of  deputies,  who  are 
generally  mere  politicians,  and  believe  nothing,  some  of  the  members  of  this 
party  are  men  of  sincere  convictions  and  of  consistent  life,  and  are  of  course 
respected  even  by  their  most  detemiined  opponents. 

From  identically  the  same  premises  the  radical  party — who  are  of  course 
much  more  alive  to  the  dangers  of  ecclesiastical  despotism  than  to  those  of 
religious  anarchy — draw  the  reverse  conclusion,  that  the  true  interest  of  Italy 
lies  in  the  determined  warfare  against  the  Papacy,  the  Catholic  Church,  the 
Jesuits,  the  priests, — in  fine,  the  whole  institution  just  as  they  find  it ;  and  so  far 
as  they  consider  it  the  exclusive  embodiment  of  Christianity,  upon  the  Christian 
religion  also.  Living  in  an  age  too  late — or  possibly  too  early,  who  can  tell  ? — 
for  direct  persecution  of  Christianity ;  looking  upon  its  spiritual  claims  with  con- 
tempt, or  at  best  with  cold  indifference,  they  would  deal  with  the  Church  as  only 


II 

an  element  in  the  political  and  social  problem,  and,  as  such,  have  the  state  get 
wholly  rid  of  it,  have  no  relations  with  it,  nor  recognize  it  in  any  way,  neither 
granting  privileges  to  its  head  or  to  its  ministers,  nor  undertaking  any  part  of  their 
support,  nor  permitting  them  to  interfere  in  any  degree  in  the  education  of  the 
young,  nor  itself  taking  the  slightest  interest  in  any  of  its  internal  divisions. 
This  party  is  active,  numerous,  not  strong  enough  to  achieve  a  parliamentary 
victory  over  all  others  combined,  but  quite  able  to  wrest  power  from  the  midst  of 
the  contentions  of  others. 

Neither  of  these  two  parities  have  any  really  able  leaders;  indeed,  no  true 
statesman  can  be  extreme  either  in  Church  or  State.  Rattazzi  is  the  representa- 
tive man  of  the  radicals,  and  a  Rattazzi  ministry  would  of  course  be  the  result  of 
a  parliamentary  victory  on  their  part. 

Between  these  two  parties  are  the  moderates,  who  are  generally  considered  as 
divided  into  the  right  and  the  centre.  These  all  agree  in  refusing  to  accept  the 
practical  conclusions  of  either  of  the  extreme  parties  already  named ;  but  there  is 
an  important  difference  in  the  grounds  on  which  they  do  this,  and  a  consequent 
divergence  in  the  policy  they  would  substitute.  One  portion  of  these  agree  per- 
sonally and  in  the  abstract  with  the  radicals  in  the  infidelity  or  indifference  with 
which  they  regard  all  religious  interests  as  such,  and  refusing  to  take  any  notice 
of  the  dissensions  within  the  Church,  as  matters  with  which  they,  as  a  government, 
have  nothing  to  do,  and  for  which,  as  individuals,  they  do  not  care.  They  take 
the  Church  as  a  whole  into  consideration,  as  a  political  fact  with  which  they  must 
deal,  and  the  Papacy  as  the  accepted  government  and  embodiment  of  the  Church. 
To  this  section  belongs  the  present  Lanza  ministiy.  Out  of  this  way  of  looking  at 
the  ecclesiastical  questions  of  the  day  has  sprung  the  Law  of  the  Papal  Guarantees, 
or,  rather,  that  second  Title  of  this  law  which  settles  the  new  relations  of  the  State  to 
the  Church  in  the  Kingdom  of  Italy.  This  law,  and  the  ministry  which  secured 
its  adoption,  ignore  all  questions  which  have  arisen  within  the  Church,  consider 
the  Papacy  as  de  facto  its  head,  and  the  clergy  as  the  subjects  of  the  Pope;  and 
the  government  has,  thus  far,  at  all  events,  sought  by  eveiy  concession  and  by  the 
very  extreme  of  deference  to  conciliate  this  inimical  Church,  and  to  persuade 
the  Vatican  to  reconcile  itself  to  the  faits  accomplis  of  the  loss  of  the  temporal 
power.  Hence  the  policy  of  summarily  suppressing  all  those  ecclesiastics  who 
showed  themselves  disposed  to  resist  the  Vatican  in  any  way ;  hence  the  policy 
of  leaving  all  ecclesiastical  questions  whatever  to  be  disposed  of  by  the  Vatican, 
and  at  its  pleasure. 

What  is  the  real  meaning  of  this  policy  I  do  not  pretend  to  understand.  The 
ministry  are  not  believers,  it  is  true,  but  the  Italians,  and  particularly  Italian 
politicians,  are  keen,  far-sighted,  and  veiy  practical  men,  shrewd  and  subtle  too, 
and  it  seems  too  much  to  suppose  them  really  blind  to  the  fact,  patent  to  the 
whole  world,  that  the  Papacy,  as  at  present  constituted,  neither  will  nor  can 
reconcile  itself  to  the  Kingdom  of  Italy,  and  that  Italy  can  never  hope  to  find 
other  than  mortal  enemies  in  Ultramontanism  and  the  Jesuits.  If  anything  had 
been  wanting  heretofore,  the  late  letter  of  the  Pope  to  Cardinal  Antonelli  has 
supplied  it ;  and  henceforth  no  one  will  pretend  to  hope  for  reconciliation  with 
the  Papacy  under  its  present  government.  But  they  have  France  to  consider  as 
well  as  the  Pope,  and  the  course  which  has  no  effect  with  one  may  serve  greatly 
to  conciliate  the  other,  and,  in  some  coming  emergency,  secure  to  Italy  the  peace 
which  she  imperatively  needs  for  the  development  of  her  internal  and  domestic 
interests.  This  policy  may  then  be,  in  a  certain  sense,  an  honest  and  straight- 
forward one,  or  it  may  have  been  pursued  for  the  purpose  of  affording  the  minis- 
try, when  the  time  should  come  for  a  change,  a  record  to  which  they  can  point 
in  support  of  their  claim  that  Italy  has  done  all  she  could,  and  more  than  all  she 
should  have  done,  in  the  endeavor  to  live  peaceably  with  the  Papacy,  and  to 
come  to  terms  with  it. 

The  ablest  statesman  belonging  to,  or  at  all  events  now  acting  with  this  sec- 
tion, is  Visconti-Venosta,  the  present  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs. 

The  other,  or  right  section  of  the  Moderates,  contains  some  leading  statesmen 


12 

who  have  been  disposed  to  take  a  more  discriminating  view  of  the  ecclesiastical 
questions  of  the  day.  I  speak  of  men  vi'ho  personally  and  in  the  abstract  agree 
more  nearly  with  the  clericals  than  with  the  radicals,  at  least  so  far  as  to  recog- 
nize the  claims  of  the  Catholic  Church, — to  confess  their  spiritual  allegiance  to 
her,  while  yet  they  do  not  acknowledge  the  claims  of  the  Papacy  to  an  arbitrary 
supremacy  in  and  over  the  Church.  All  this  class  of  men — and  it  embraces  the 
la"ger  part  of  the  truly  great  names  among  Italian  public  men,  such  as  Ricasoli, 
Mamiani,  Peruzzi,  Minghetti,  Boncompagni,  Bonghi,  and  Rudini  in  active  life,  as 
well  as  Capponi,  Sermoneta,  Manzoni,  and  others,  reverenced  for  their  years  as 
well  as  for  their  virtues  and  their  abilities, — all  this  class  reject  alike  the  Vatican 
Council  and  its  decrees,  and  advocate,  in  a  greater  or  a  less  degree,  the  reforma- 
tion of  the  Church.  Many  of  these  wished  to  have  so  modified  the  second  Title 
of  the  Law  of  the  Guarantees  as  to  have  prepared  the  way  for  some  such  refoiTna- 
tions.  These  men  clearly  discriminate  between  Catholicism  and  Ultramontanism, 
and  would  gladly  do  whatever  they  believe  practicable  to  combat  the  power  of 
the  latter  in  the  Church.  Some  would  do  this  from  political,  some  from  social, 
and  some  from  purely  religious  considerations.  Some  would  aim  at  reform 
only  through  and  under  the  lead  of  a  reforming  Pope,  and  trust  that  one  will  yet 
arise.  Some  do  not  think  that  the  German  Old  Catholics  are  going  at  all  too  far, 
and  would  gladly  see  Italian  ecclesiastics  following  their  example.  Some  have 
no  hope  for  such  reform  in  Italy,  others  are  far  more  sanguine  ;  but  all  stand,  in 
some  sense,  as  the  representatives  of  the  general  principle  of  Catholic  Reform,  as 
between  the  clericals  on  one  side,  and  the  central  moderates  now  in  possession  of 
the  government  on  the  other.  With  the  ecclesiastical  views  of  these  men  our 
Church  would  unquestionably  most  fully  sympathize,  however  much  more  some 
of  the  negative  principles  of  the  radicals  might  seem  to  commend  themselves  to 
us.  But  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  to  denounce  the  Papacy  does  not  in  Italy 
imply  any  belief  at  all  in  Christianity.     Nay,  if  anything,  rather  the  contrary. 

Such  is  the  state  of  Italian  parties  on  ecclesiastical  questions,  and  under  the 
present  government  policy  it  has  been  no  wonder  that  the  refomr  party  among 
the  clergy  of  the  Church  have  been  utterly  unable  to  act,  or  even  to  speak  out 
with  any  effect. 

The  contempt  with  which  the  Vatican  has  thus  far  met  all  these  advances  on 
the  part  of  the  government,  the  undisguised  hostility  of  France,  to  which  the 
Vatican  looks  for  a  restoration  of  its  temporal  power,  and  radical  pressure,  are 
apparently  forcing  the  beginnings  of  some  change.  The  German  alliance, 
which  has  been  inevitable  under  the  circumstances,  is  Visconti-Venosta's  share  in 
that  change.  The  foreign  policy  of  the  government  now  undoubtedly  implies 
resistance,  not  to  the  Chiuxh  as  such,  but  to  the  Ultramontanism  within  the 
Church,  and  the  protection  and  encouragement  of  the  Old  Catholic  reformers. 
There  is,  however,  as  yet  no  consistency  whatever, — nay,  the  strangest  antagon- 
ism between  this  foreign  policy  and  the  home  administration,  but  the  ecclesiastical 
policy  of  the  government  might  be  much  more  generally  censured  than  it  yet  is 
without  forfeiting  parliamentaiy  support,  since,  after  all,  there  is  a  far  more  living 
interest  felt  everywhere  in  questions  which  concern  the  material  development 
of  the  country,  and  the  consolidation  of  its  unity;  and  the  practical  efficiency  of 
Signori  Lanza  and  Sella  in  advancing  these  ends  commands  deserved  confidence. 

But  as  ecclesiastical  questions  become  of  more  pressing  importance,  a  change 
will  yet  come,  and  it  may  come  in  either  of  three  forms : 

1.  By  the  accession  of  the  left  or  radicals  to  power.  In  this  case  it  would 
bring  with  it  an  ecclesiastical  policy  hostile  to  the  Church  as  such,  and  by  no 
means  favorable  to  calm,  sober,  and  Catholic  internal  reform. 

2.  By  the  accession  of  the  right  wing,  perhaps  under  Ricasoli,  but  more 
probably  under  Minghetti  as  Prime  Minister,  and  not  at  all  unlikely  retaining 
Visconti-Venosta  in  his  present  post,  which  has  not  been  so  ably  filled  since  the 
death  of  Cavour.  Such  a  ministry,  from  a  mixture  of  principle  and  policy,  would, 
I  think,  certainly  give  a  more  or  less  active  and  practical  encouragement  to  the 
Catholic  reformers. 


13 

3.  By  a  change  of  policy  on  the  part  of  the  present  ministry  in  the  same 
general  direction ;  if  for  no  other  reason,  at  least  to  forestall  their  political  oppo- 
nents, and  secure  a  continuance  in  power. 

From  all  this  it  is  easy  to  perceive  how  much  depends,  humanly  speaking, 
upon  the  spread  of  Alt-Catholicism  in  Germany  and  France,  and  the  degree  to 
which  this  may  influence  the  course  of  the  governments  of  these  countries,  and 
thus  indirectly  that  of  Italy  as  the  ally  of  the  one,  and  as  being  forced  to  guard 
against  the  hostility  of  the  other.  Much,  very  much,  depends,  too,  upon  the 
extent  to  which  Italian  public  men,  statesmen  and  writers,  are  able  to  discriminate 
between  the  Catholic  Church  and  the  Ultramontane  sect  which  has  become 
despotic  within  it  and  over  it,  or,  in  other  words,  upon  the  growth  of  truly 
Catholic  views  in  public  circles.  Such  views  would  prove  to  conservative  men 
that  it  was  possible  to  root  out  the  present  evils  without  laying  disloyal  hands 
upon  the  Catholic  Church ;  and  to  moderate  radicals  that  it  was  not  necessary  to 
destroy  the  Catholic  Church  in  order  to  secure  liberty  and  restore  peace  to  Italy. 

It  is  manifest,  then,  that,  so  far  as  this  part  of  the  field  is  concerned,  the 
opportunities  at  present  offered  for  my  official  action  consist  chiefly  in  contribu- 
tions to  the  secular  press,  and  such  intercourse  as  may  be  permitted  me  with  lay- 
men interested  in  the  solution  of  this  politico-ecclesiastical  problem  which  Italy 
has  yet  on  hand.  Within  this  range  I  have,  so  far,  little  or  nothing  to  report.  I 
have  not,  as  yet,  been  able  to  resume  my  pen,  although  the  columns  of  two  or 
three  journals  have  been  courteously  opened  to  me,  nor  do  I  yet  feel  sure  to  what 
extent  it  would  be  wise  to  do  so  ;  and  the  subject  of  my  private  and  personal  in- 
tercourse with  individuals  is  not,  as  can  be  readily  understood,  either  a  practi- 
cable or  a  proper  one  for  discussion  in  a  published  report. 

I  turn  now,  briefly,  to  the  more  strictly  religious  aspect  of  the  Catholic 
Reform  Movement,  as  manifested  in  Italy. 

,,  Everywhere  I  find  it,  as  I  have  already  intimated,  almost  crushed  by  the  strong 
hand  of  triumphant  Jesuitism,  into  whose  absolute  control  the  Church  has  been 
delivered  up  by  the  Law  of  the  Papal  Guarantees.  I  do  not  find  any  reason  to 
think  that  the  reformers  have  lost  faith  in  the  future ;  but,  for  the  time,  nearly  all 
purely  Italian  activity  in  this  field  is  repressed. 

And,  in  the  meanwhile,  those  whose  firm  and  self-devoted  hands  first  upraised 
the  standard  of  reform  are  one  by  one  passing  away.  Of  all  the  noble  staff  which 
gave  to  the  " Esaniinatore  "  its  first  value,  and  which  commanded  the  respect  of 
even  its  bitter  enemies,  only  one  remains.  Bianciardi,  its  editor,  died  more  than 
three  years  ago,  as  we  all  well  remember ;  Barzacchini,  his  own  pastor  and  the 
Desiderio  Dalvelo  of  the  ^^ Esaininatore^^  and  also  Prior  Bianchi,  of  San  Lorenzo, 
died  but  a  short  time  before  him.  Reali,  ex-Canon  of  the  Lateran,  and  lately  of 
Siena,  followed  him  soon  after.  Now  Parroco  Mongini,  once  the  vigorous  and 
uncompromising  pamphleteer  and  impetuous  assailant  of  the  Vatican,  broken  by 
age,  sickness,  and  disappointment,  although  still  living,  is  unable  to  continue  his 
labors ;  and  one  whom  I  have  not  heretofore  felt  that  I  ought  to  name,  but  to 
whom  I  have  often  referred,  as  the  author  of  the  Piacentine  Letters,  is  no  more. 

If  I  am  ever  able  to  treat  this  subject  more  at  length,  I  shall  hope  to  speak 
more  fully  of  Monsignore  Luigi  Tosi,  of  Cremona.  He  was  one  of  the  earliest 
friends  of  Bianciardi,  a  leading  counsellor  during  nearly  the  whole  career,  and 
especially  the  latter  years  of  the  "Esamhia/ore.^'  He  was  one  of  my  own  first, 
and  latterly,  I  think  I  may  add,  most  attached  friends  in  Italy,  and  there  was  a 
bond  of  sincere  Christian  affection  between  us,  to  which  it  will  do  him  no  harm  now 
to  refer.  The  sincerity  and  simplicity  of  his  personal  piety,  the  thoroughness  of 
his  learning,  the  breadth  and  candor  of  his  views,  and  finally  the  position  which 
he  held  as  the  Capitular  Vicar  of  the  vacant  Diocese  of  Cremona,  from  the  death  of 
good  Bishop  Novasconi,  December,  1867,  to  the  appointment  of  the  new  papal 
occupant  of  that  see,  made  him  a  man  of  mark,  whom  I  had  hoped  that  God  had 
raised  up  for  a  leader  in  the  coming  struggle  between  Catholicity  and  the  Vati- 
can. The  sad  intelligence  that  he  had  been  struck  with  apoplexy  but  a  few  days 
after  his  displacement  by  the  new  Bishop,  and  of  his  death  upon  January  13th 


H 

last,  came  to  me  when  I  was  unable  either  to  respond  to  it  or  to  report  the  fact  to 
the  Commission. 

To  this  loss  is  also  to  be  added  that  of  Cav.  Guiseppe  Civinini.  The  Com- 
mission are  aware  how  greatly  I  have  been  indebted  to  his  courtesy  as  director 
of  the  "Nazione"  for  the  opportunity  of  discussing  in  the  secular  press,  and  for 
secular  readers  and  public  men,  the  various  topics  connected  with  the  witness  of 
the  Anglican  Churches  in  the  ecclesiastical  questions  of  the  day.  The  remains 
of  this  aljle  publicist — one  of  the  very  ablest  and  most  influential  which  have 
adorned  Italian  journalism — were  borne  to  their  resting-place  at  Pistoia,  passing 
me  as  I  returned  to  Florence. 

Nor  is  this  all ;  for  when  I  was  at  last  able  to  reply  to  the  affectionate  wel- 
come of  Count  Tasca  which  awaited  me  on  my  return,  my  letter  was  answered 
by  his  son,  telling  me  that  the  noble,  faithful  soldier,  patriot,  and  Christian  was 
lying  on  the  bed  of  severe  sickness,  where  he  had  been  lingering  for  some  time, 
and  from  which  there  is,  I  fear,  at  his  age,  but  little  hope  of  recovery. 

I  have  been  in  Italy  but  little  more  than  five  years,  yet  events  have  come  and 
gone,  succeeding  each  other  so  rapidly — those  which  were  once  spoken  of  among 
us  as  probable  in  some  vague  future  now  already  past ;  and  so  veiy  large  a  pro- 
portion of  those  who  once  formed  my  whole  circle  of  Italian  friends  and  counsel- 
lors have  finished  their  course,  and  now  rest  from  their  labors — that  I  feel  as 
though  I  had  been  here  an  age,  and  as  though  I  stood  between  two  generations  of 
reformers, — those  to  whom  God  gave  it  to  inaugurate  this  sacred  work,  and  those  to 
whom  He  will  yet  entrust  its  completion. 

Monsignore  Tiboni,  of  Brescia,  still  lives,  thank  God,  and  has  lately  published 
a  very  characteristic  discourse  on  "  Communism  and  the  Gospel." 

Professor  Cassani,  of  Bologna,  still  moves  on  in  his  quiet  but  firm  course  as 
Director  of  the  " Kinnovaine^ito  Cattolico"  an  organ  of  the  reformers,  but  little 
satisfactoiy  to  those  whom  it  seeks  to  represent,  on  account  of  its  extreme  conser- 
vatism, but  which  may,  perhaps,  claim  to  atone  for  this  defect  by  its  equally  un- 
questionable tenacity  of  purpose. 

The  arch-priest  Cicuto,  too,  a  Venetian  whose  name  I  have  not  before  felt  at 
liberty  to  use,  is  now  writing  boldly  over  his  own  signature,  in  the  "Jiivisia 
Universale,"  against  the  new  Papal  claims,  and  has,  in  consequence,  been  singled 
out  by  the  Pope  himself  as  worthy  of  personal  reproof. 

I  hope  soon  to  see  some  of  my  good  Lombard  friends,  and  to  know  more  of 
their  present  views  and  hopes  than  I  do  as  yet,  but  I  fear  that  they  generally  feel 
themselves,  as  one  of  them  lately  wrote  me,  "  bound  hand  and  foot,  and  deliv- 
ered over  by  the  government  to  be  dragged  at  the  car  of  triumphant  Jesuitism." 

What  wonder  that  the  loyal  and  refonning  priests,  oppressed  and  almost 
directly  persecuted  by  the  government  itself,  should  turn  toward  Germany,  and 
bitterly  contrast  the  support  which  the  Gennan  Alt-Catholics  receive  from  their 
government  on  the  one  side,  and  from  the  laity  on  the  other,  with  the  cold 
indifference  by  which  they  are  themselves  surrounded  on  every  side ;  and  what 
wonder  that  there  almost  ceases  to  be  a  distinctively  Italian  Reform  Movement, 
and,  instead  of  it,  a  number  of  Italian  ecclesiastical  followers  of  the  great  leaders 
of  iVIunich  and  Cologne !  What  wonder  that  the  Alt-Catholic  Committee  in 
Rome,  though  it  contains  Italian  members,  is  by  no  means  an  Italian  committee, 
but  one  of  mixed  nationality,  under  the  presidency  of  the  great  French  refomier, 
P6re  Hyacinthe ;  that  the  leading  refonn  journal  now  in  Italy,  the  "Esperance  de 
Rome,"  is  a  French  review  directed  by  a  Brazilian,  and  claiming  to  represent 
the  movement  generally,  rather  than  the  Italian  phase  of  it;  in  fine,  that  the 
city  of  Rome  itself,  so  far  as  the  religious  aspects  of  this  movement  are  con- 
cerned, is  not  the  capital  of  Italy,  but  rather  one  of  the  centres  of  the  general 
European  Catholic  reform. 

Yet,  in  despite  of  all  these  discouragements,  there  are,  nevertheless,  great 
grounds  of  encouragement,  full  of  promise  for  the  future,  for  those  who  have 
patience  to  look  forward,  to  realize  that  all  these  things  "must  needs  be,"  and 
to  remember  that  there  can  be  no  uncertainty  of  the  ultimate  issue  in  the  contest 


15 

between  truth  and  error,  between  light  and  darkness.  What  if  this  generation, 
trained  under  the  past,  should  be  incapable  of  doing  more  than  setting  wide  the 
door  for  truth  to  enter  ?  Another  generation  will  be  better  fitted  to  enter  into  the 
fruition  of  the  present ;  and  what  is  a  generation  in  the  histoiy  of  the  Church  ? 

Is  it  no  great  advance  that  the  contemporaries  of  the  Madiai,  who  were  im- 
prisoned in  Florence,  the  most  liberal  city  of  Italy,  for  the  sole  offence  of  reading 
the  Word  of  God,  should  have  been  able  to  listen  to  the  catholic  Pere  Hyacinthe 
advocating  the  organization  of  a  Bible  society  in  Rome,  and  to  assist  at  a  public 
discussion  in  Rome  of  the  question  whether  St.  Peter  had  ever  been  there  ?  Is 
it  nothing  that  the  erratic,  but  most  honest  and  earnest  priest,  Don  Ambrogio, 
who  had  been  so  frequently  imprisoned  in  Piedmont  for  open-air  preaching, 
should  have  been  able,  as  he  did  about  a  fortnight  since,  to  address  a  crowd  upon  the 
Piazza  Colonna,  at  Rome,  within  earshot  of  the  former  headquarters  of  the  Papal 
police,  upon  the  subject  of  the  difference  between  the  religion  of  Christ  and  that 
of  the  Vatican  ?  Is  it  nothing  that  priests  of  the  Italian  Catholic  Church,  who 
had  been  taught  to  look  upon  all  Protestants  as  accursed  unbelievers,  that  despised 
God  and  trampled  on  the  Cross  of  Christ,  should  now  be  ready  "to  take  sweet 
counsel  together"  with  one  of  ourselves;  and  that  Italian  statesmen,  trained 
under  the  same  system,  should  not  scorn  to  seek  information  concerning  the 
principles,  discipline,  organization,  claims,  and  practical  working  of  our  Church, 
as  subjects  which  might  be  suggestive  of  practical  solutions  of  some  of  the 
politico-ecclesiastical  problems  which  perplex  them  to-day  ?  It  is  the  greatest  proof 
of  the  enormous  strides  toward  religious  liberty  and  light  which  have  been  made 
by  the  Italian  state,  that  we  already  begin  to  take  these  as  a  matter  of  course,  and 
are  impatient  at  the  difficulties  and  obstacles  which  obstruct  the  entrance  of 
similar  liberty  and  light  within  the  Italian  Church. 

We  forget  that  these  civil  liberties  were  preceded  by  and  were  largely  the  con- 
sequence of  the  sufferings  of  those  who  first  sought  them;  that  Gioberti  and  Manin 
died  in  exile ;  that  Poerio  languished  year  after  year  in  the  Neapolitan  dungeons, 
and  that  Silvio  Pelico  was  transported  from  one  Austrian  prison  to  another ;  that 
the  only  reward  of  the  patriot  was  suffering,  and  the  only  apparent  result  of  his 
labors  to  be  crushed  by  the  strong  hand  of  tyranny.  But  yet,  because  of  these 
things,  the  flag  of  a  free  Italy  floats  this  day  over  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo,  and 
Italy  is  one  from  the  Alps  to  the  furthest  cape  of  Sicily.  We  are  now  living 
only  in  the  day  of  the  Manins  and  the  Poerios  and  the  Pellicos  of  the  Church. 

Before  closing,  it  is  proper  that  I  should  say  that,  while  in  England,  on  my 
return  to  Italy,  the  desire  was  expressed  to  me  that  I  should  cooperate  more 
directly  even  than  heretofore  with  the  Anglo-Continental  Society.  I  did  not 
feel  at  liberty  to  assume  any  official  relations  with  that  body,  but,  grateful  for  the 
confidence  thus  shown,  I  assured  my  English  friends  that  it  would  be  a  source  of 
sincere  satisfaction  to  the  Commission,  as  well  as  to  myself,  if  in  any  way  I  could 
aid  them  in  canying  out  the  objects  of  that  society.  From  one  cause  and  an- 
other they  have  ceased  to  have  any  direct  agents  in  Italy ;  and  I  believe  that  I 
alone  at  present  practically  act  for  them. 

As  usual  in  my  reports,  I  have  had  but  little  to  say  of  what  I  have  myself 
done.  In  fact,  so  far,  I  have  indeed  done  but  little  since  my  return  to  Florence  ; 
but  I  can  never  report  much  under  this  head.  A  slight  consideration  will  easily 
suggest  to  those  who  understand  the  nature  of  my  present  position  here  that,  as  a 
general  thing,  the  more  successful  my  mission,  the  less  I  would  probably  have  to 
spread  upon  the  pages  of  a  report.  The  facts  which  might  enable  others  to 
judge  of  the  value  of  our  work  I  am  withheld  from  mentioning  by  considerations 
of  propriety,  prudence,  and  good  faith;  and  opinions  and  claims,  unsupported  by 
facts,  I  am  equally  withheld  by  self-respect  from  putting  forth. 

Respectfully  submitted, 

Wm.  Chauncy  Langdon, 

Foreign  Secretary. 


APPENDIX 


REPORTS    OF    THE     SECRETARIES 


Extract  from  an   Address    delivered  bv  the    Right  Reverend  the   Bishop  of 
Pennsylvania  before  his  Diocesan  Convention,  May  14,  1872. 

The  work  of  the  Italian  Commission  of  our  Church  in  Italy  is  confined  to 
watching  the  progress  of  affairs  in  the  Church  and  in  the  State  as  they  bear  upon 
ecclesiastical  reform,  to  pouring  in  light  upon  the  public  mind  as  to  the  existence 
and  practical  working  of  what  Count  Cavour  so  ardently  longed  for,  "Libero 
Chiesa  in  libero  Stato^''  as  illustrated  in  the  organization  of  this  Church,  and  to 
the  keeping  up  an  interest  at  home  in  this  work  abroad,  so  as  to  sustain  that 
sympathy  which,  we  hold,  should  ever  be  extended  to  those  who  are  struggling 
to  free  themselves  from  the  shackles  of  superstition,  tyranny,  and  error.  For, 
just  as  our  American  people,  through  the  resolutions  of  their  Congress,  showed 
their  sympathy  half  a  centuiy  ago  nearly,  with  the  then  existing  republics  of 
South  America — not,  indeed,  approving  all  the  proclamations,  or  all  the  acts  of 
these  nations  in  the  pursuit  of  freedom,  but  only  thereby  sanctioning,  by  our 
national  sympathy,  the  great  underlying  principles  of  liberty  which  originated 
these  revolutionary  movements — so  the  General  Convention  of  our  Church,  not 
endorsing,  indeed,  all  the  plans  or  efforts  or  views  of  the  Italian  reformers,  or  of 
the  German  reformers,  yet  sees  in  these  movements  the  germs  and  principles  of 
great  Catholic  truths  and  a  great  Catholic  work,  and  so  sends  out  to  them  words 
of  cheer,  holds  out  to  them  a  hand  of  help,  and  thus  encourages  them  to  press  on 
in  the  work  of  getting  back  to  the  old  paths  and  the  old  truths. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Langdon,  who  has  been  our  agent  in  Italy  for  sevei-al  years, 
has  been  of  great  service  as  a  living  bond  between  the  reforming  elements, 
clerical  and  lay.  He  has  also  been  a  centre  of  information  as  to  the  practical 
workings  of  other  branches  of  Christ's  Church,  a  vigilant  obsei-ver  of  the  ebbs 
and  flows  of  the  tidal  waves  of  Italian  legislation,  and  the  proceedings  of  the 
Roman  Curia,  a  ready  defender  and  upholder  of  the  great  principles  upon  which 
only  a  true  reform  can  be  based. 


Extract  from  an  address  delivered  by  the  Very  Rev.  y.  S.  Hozvson,  D.D.,  Dean 
of  Chester,  before  the  House  of  Deputies  in  Getteral  Convention,  Baltimore, 
October  23,  1 87 1. 

It  might  be  asked,  in  the  first  place,  What  has  the  American  Church  to  do 
with  Italy  ?     Why  may  it  not  attend  to  its  own  concerns,  which  are  sufficiently 


17 

important  and  very  various,  and  why  not  leave  Italy  to  do  its  own  business  in  its 
own  way?  I  venture  to  say  that  the  thought  expressed  in  that  objection  is  not  a 
very  Christian  sentiment.  It  certainly  is  no  part  of  the  business  of  this  Church  to 
form  separate  congregations  of  Italians  in  that  country ;  but  for  this  Church  to  be 
out  of  sympathy,  and  not  to  make  any  expression  of  active  sympathy  with  a  move- 
ment for  Church  reform  in  that  countiy,  would  be  to  be  unfaithful  to  its  own 
position  and  traditions. 

Why  should  the  American  branch  of  the  Church  occupy  itself  with  this  busi- 
ness ?  It  is  separated  by  the  whole  breadth  of  the  Atlantic,  and  more  than  the 
breadth  of  the  Atlantic,  from  Italy,  whereas  the  Church  of  England  is  veiy  near, 
and  the  relations  between  Italy  and  England  have  been  frequent  in  ages  past.  I 
presume  to  say  that  this  is  the  very  reason  why  the  Church  of  England  is  not  so 
fit  as  the  Church  of  America  to  deal  with  this  question.  The  veiy  fact  that  we 
have  been  entangled  in  a  great  many  European  questions,  religious  and  diplo- 
matic, for  a  great  many  years,  exposes  us  to  a  certain  degree  of  suspicion  which 
does  not  belong  to  you.  The  fact  of  your  independence,  and  the  great  distance 
at  which  you  stand  from  Italy,  seem  to  mark  out  this  branch  of  our  united  Church 
as  the  most  suitable  to  deal  with  this  question. 

But  more  than  this,  there  is  a  popular  saying,  which  has  obtained  currency 
from  Count  Cavour,  which  speaks  of  a  "  free  Church  in  a  free  State."  This  thing 
you  have  more  than  any  other  nation  in  the  world.  You,  possessed  of  a  free 
Church  in  a  free  State,  are  more  likely  to  be  listened  to  in  Italy  than  we,  with  our 
hereditary  entanglements,  whether  they  be  good  or  whether  they  be  bad.  Be- 
sides this,  you  have  a  free  and  full  representation  of  the  laity  in  this  Church,  and, 
as  I  shall  have  occasion  to  remark  presently,  this  will  make  you  far  more  acceptable 
than  any  Church  where  the  representation  of  the  laity  is  in  a  quasi  political 
form. 

It  maybe  asked.  What  form  should  your  sympathy  and  effort  take  in  regard  to 
these  Italian  questions?  The  method  according  to  which  these  efforts  should  be 
made,  I  presume,  is  this  :  Information  should  be  carefully  collected  and  recorded, 
and  brought  to  you.  Those  who  are  inclined  for  reform  in  Italy  should  be 
brought  together,  the  publication  of  useful  books  should  be  promoted,  relations 
with  the  public  press  in  Italy  should  be  cultivated,  and  all  this  should  be  done  in 
an  open,  frank,  honest,  and  perfectly  transparent  manner,  without  any  intrigue, — 
to  which,  in  fact,  none  of  us  are  addicted.  And  meantime,  while  you  are  doing 
this,  we  in  England  ought  to  aid  in  any  way  we  can.  But  one  thing  is  essential, 
— that  whatever  ultimate  action  is  taken  should  be  thoroughly  Italian.  No 
American  exotic,  no  English  exotic,  in  Church  matters,  will  ever  have  a  healthy 
and  perpetual  growth  in  Italy.  We  can  help  them  to  reform  themselves ;  but  the 
Italian  proverb  says,  in  regard  to  Church  matters,  as  well  as  other  matters, 
^'Italia  lo  fard  da  se."  In  fact,  the  fonn  that  your  enterprise,  according  to  my 
humble  judgment,  ought  to  take,  is  precisely  the  form  inider  which  these  move- 
ments have  been  conducted  hitherto. 

Mr.  Langdon  has  accumulated  a  great  deal  of  knowledge  and  a  great  deal  of 
experience  which  no  other  human  being  possesses.  .  .  .  He  and  I  have  been  to- 
gether a  great  deal,  as  I  have  told  you ;  and  this  I  will  say,  that,  although  I 
believe  he  is  very  zealous,  I  have  found  him  veiy  prudent.  Indeed,  I  have  some- 
times thought  him  too  prudent,  and,  so  far  as  my  knowledge  of  his  proceedings 
goes,  I  have  never  been  conscious  of  any  single  blunder  on  his  part  through  want 
of  judgment.  ...  As  to  the  results  at  which  we  should  aim — the  obtaining  of 
the  confidence  of  public  men,  and  the  establishment  of  relations  with  the  press — 
I  am  quite  surprised  at  the  degree  of  confidence  which  he  has  inspired,  and  the 
way  in  which  the  Italian  newspapers  have  admitted  his  letters,  in  which  he  has 
expounded  to  the  Italians,  with  their  approval,  your  Church  Constitution;  which 
letters  of  his  have  again  been  followed  by  leading  articles  speaking  most  respect- 
fully of  your  organization,  and  recommending  to  Italians  the  careful  consideration 
of  your  system  as  possibly  in  many  respects  very  much  adapted  to  them. 


i8 

But,  in  regard  to  Mr.  Langdon,  I  will  say  nothing  more  on  my  own  part ;  I 
will  only  add  that  two  of  my  friends,  who  have  seen  more  of  him  than  I  have, 
entirely  agree  in  my  opinion.  One  is  a  clergyman  who  probably  knows  more  of 
reforming  movements  on  the  continent  than  any  other  person  now  living,  and 
who  certainly  has  the  most  singular  skill  in  winning  his  way  with  opponents  in 
respect  to  the  controversies  that  lie  between  the  Church  of  Rome  and  ours.  The 
other  is  a  layman,  a  lawyer,  a  keen  lawyer,  and  a  lawyer  with  a  very  large  and 
varied  experience  in  regard  to  Church  law.  I  will  read  to  you  a  few  salient  sen- 
tences from  a  letter  I  received  from  him  in  the  month  of  September.  This 
gentleman  says  to  me  : 

"  I  hear  you  are  going  to  America.  If  you  do,  don't  fail  to  put  in  a  good 
word  for  Mr.  Langdon.  It  would  be  impossible  for  any  one  else  to  fill  the  place 
he  fills  most  efficiently  there.  Pray  do  not  mislay  this  note,  but  take  it  with  you 
to  America.  It  would  be  a  grievous  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  spirit  of  reform 
is  not  alive  in  Italy  because,  externally,  things  go  on  as  ever." 

He  then  quotes  from  the  third  volume  of  D'Aubigne's  "  History  of  the  Re- 
formation," alluding  to  a  similar  period  in  the  sixteenth  centuiy,  when  there  was 
no  visible  change  in  regard  to  outward  matters.  D'Aubigne  says,  "  Every  revo- 
lution must  take  place  first  in  thought,  before  it  is  accomplished  externally.  The 
minds  of  men  must  be  changed  before  their  forms  are  changed.  For  all  these 
things  the  lapse  of  a  certain  time  is  required."  After  thus  quoting  D'Aubigne, 
mv  friend  says  :  "  The  more  I  see  and  hear  and  think  of  our  hopes  and  duties  in 
relation  to  Italy,  the  more  firmly  I  feel  convinced  that  we  ought  to  spare  no  pains 
in  sowing,  leaving  it  to  others,  in  God's  good  time,  to  reap.  .  .  .  When  the 
public  mind  is  educated  up  to  the  mark,  the  people  will  drive  the  priesthood  to 
reform  the  Church.  Meantime,  we  cannot  expect  that  the  most  ardent  reforniers 
will  face  the  horrors  of  martyrdom  in  the  ignoble  form  of  starvation." 

These  are  strong  sentences  from  a  well-informed  man,  whose  opinion  is 
worthy  of  being  accepted.  And  to  add  the  judgment  of  two  of  oin-  own  English 
bishops,  I  believe  I  can  quote  with  perfect  confidence  the  names  of  the  Bishop 
of  Ely  and  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  Dr.  Harold  Browne,  and  Dr.  Christopher 
Wordsworth,  names  not  unknown  on  this  continent,  veiy  strongly  in  confirmation 
of  everything  I  have  said ;  and,  for  my  own  part,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying 
that  Mr.  Langdon  has  been  instrumental  toward  a  very  large  difflision  in  Italy  of 
a  liealthy  spirit  of  conservative  Church  reform." 

Extracts  from  a  Paper  entitled  the  Religious  Condition  of  Italy  in  the  [London) 
"  Christian  Observer"  for  June  aud  yuly,  1872. 

The  various  agencies  which  are  comprised  under  the  head  of  "  The  Modern 
Italian  Reformation"  may  be  arranged  under  four  heads:  (i)  The  missions 
established  by  foreign  religious  bodies,  with  the  view  not  only  of  making  known 
the  truth,  but  of  founding  in  Italy  branches  of  their  respective  communions;  (2) 
The  mission  of  the  Waldensian  Church;  (3)  The  Evangelici,  or  free  Italian 
Churches  ;   (4)  The  reform  movement  in  the  Italian  Church  itself. 

On  the  first  of  these  heads  we  have  little  to  say.  No  foreign  religious  body 
can  ever  exist  in  Italy,  reformed  or  unreformed,  but  as  a  sect ;  and  good  men 
as  its  missionaries  may  be,  their  work  must  partake  somewhat  of  the  nature  of 
proselyting.  We  take  this  opportunity  of  giving  a  caution  to  those  friends  of 
Italian  reformation  who,  in  their  warmth  of  heart  believing  that  anything  must 
be  better  for  the  Italians  than  what  they  already  have,  do  not  sufficiently  consider 
whether  what  they  would  give  them  is  the  best  or  wisest  of  substitutes. 

The  Waldenses  are  everywhere  regarded  as  foreigners,  and,  as  such,  while 
they  may  make  individual  converts,  may  found  communities,  and  do  good  in 
making  the  truth  known  to  individuals,  they  will  never  absorb  Italy  into  their 
Church. 

We   cannot   accept   "the  Evangelici''''    as   the   best   thing   for  Italy.      Wliat 


19 

English  Churchmen  would  think  most  mischievous  in  their  own  parishes  cannot 
be  right  to  sanction  and  aid  in  Italy.  He  who  determined  not  to  know  anything 
among  the  Corinthians  save  "  Jesus  Christ  and  Him  crucified,"  wrote  also  to 
them  the  earliest  rubric,  "  Let  all  things  be  done  decently  and  in  order."  And 
neither  the  Waldenses  nor  the  Evangelici  have  any  influence  with  the  educated 
classes. 

To  our  minds  the  real  hope  for  Italian  reformation  is  the  refomi  movement  in 
the  Italian  Church  itself,  carried  on  by  men  whose  position  much  resembles  that 
of  our  reformers  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  There  is,  from  its  veiy  nature, 
almost  as  little  to  write  about  it  as  there  is  to  write  about  the  gradual  stealing  on 
of  the  morning  light  in  the  eastern  sky;  it  is  as  slow,  as  quiet,  we  believe  it  is  as 
sure.  The  sky  is  not  cloudless.  The  reformers  are  not  fully  enlightened  ;  they 
dread  schism,  and,  distinguishing  between  the  Church  and  the  corruptions,  they 
have  no  wish  to  leave  her,  rather  remaining  in  her  with  the  hope  of  reforming 
her.  They  have  often,  nevertheless,  to  encounter  persecution  and  false  judg- 
ment, not  only  from  the  Papacy,  but  at  the  hands  of  those  who  would  have  them 
see  everything  at  once. 

The  Anglo-Continental  Society  gives  its  sympathy  to  the  reformers  within  the 
Church;  the  Italian  Church  Reform  Society  goes  further,  and  desires  to  form 
congregations  after  the  model  of  the  English  Church ;  but  we  had  better  bide 
their  time,  and  let  the  reformers  take  their  own  course  in  Italy,  as  they  did  in 
England,  and  we  do  not  desire  to  foist  even  our  dear  English  Church  upon  them. 
.  .  .  The  American  Episcopal  Church  has  acted  with  equal  judgment  and  tact. 
She,  a  Church  wholly  separate  from  the  state,  seems  to  the  Italians  to  have  solved 
one  of  their  most  perplexing  prolilems,  and  her  influence  is,  therefore,  greater 
than  our  own.  And  from  her  "  Church  Reformation  Commission  "  the  Rev.  W. 
C.  Langdon,  to  whose  writings  and  reports  our  pages  are  so  largely  indebted,  has 
been  sent  to  watch  the  RefoiTn  Movement  and  to  aid  it.  which  he  has  done  with 
an  ability,  judgment,  and  prudence  which  have  earned  for  him  plenty  of  hard 
words  on  one  side,  but,  on  the  other,  the  full  confidence  of  the  reformers  them- 
selves. 


The  Programme  of  the  Central  Committee  of  Old  Catholics  at  Rome. 

The  Esperance  de  Rome  for  June  5th  publishes  the  programme  of  the  Roman 
Old-Catholic  Committee.  The  document  is  well  described  as  "  very  important 
as  the  most  definite  in  its  terms  of  all  that  have  hitherto  proceeded  from  the 
leaders  of  that  party,  having,  besides  its  intrinsic  importance,  a  deep  interest  for 
another  reason.  It  is  the  first  public  profession  of  faith  in  opposition  to  the 
Papacy  which  has  been  made  at  Rome  for  a  thousand  years  by  members  of  the 
Roman  Church,  always  excepting  those  few  scattered  periods  of  revolution  when, 
for  political  reasons,  the  Pope  was  '  not  at  home.'  "  The  officers  of  this  commit- 
tee are  as  follows : 

Honorary  President :  The  founder,  the  Rev.  Father  Hyacinthe. 

President :  The  Rev.  Father  Andrea  d'Altagene,  Capucin. 

Vice-President :  Mr.  F.  Nery,  editor  of  the  "-^ Esperance  de  Rome." 

Secretary  :  The  Abbe  Vincenzo  Caprera. 

Treasurer  :  Mr.  Gerardo  Molfese,  of  the  Roman  bar. 

The  address  of  the  Committee  is  Via  Bocca  di  Leone,  No.  1 1 ,  Rome. 

Here  is  the  programme  in  full : 

"  The  Committee  established  in  Rome  for  the  defence  of  the  Catholic  faith 
against  the  innovations  of  these  latter  days,  and  for  the  promotion  of  a  refomi  in 
discipline  and  in  morals  within  the  Church,  feels  itself  compelled  to  declare 
distinctly  that  it  intends  to  base  its  work  on  the  Divine  foundation  of  Jesus  Christ. 
It  looks  upon  all  schemes  of  reform  that  are  otherwise  inspired  as  impotent ;  it 
therefore  confesses  Christ  as  the  Son  of  the  Living  God,  the  only  Redeemer  of 
souls  and  of  nations,  and  it  awaits  at  His  hands  that  regeneration  of  which  the 
world  stands  in  need. 


20 

"  Urmly  attached  to  the  faith  which  Christ  and  His  Apostles  established  in  the 
Church,  we  accept,  together  with  the  Holy  Scriptures,  all  traditions  of  a  Divine 
origin,  and  all  the  legitimate  decrees  of  the  Catholic  Church.  But  we  reject,  in 
the  most  absolute  manner,  all  human  traditions  which  have  mingled  with  the 
deposit  of  Revelation,  and  the  misuse  of  authority  whereby  it  has  been  sought  to 
maintain  and  impose  them.  We  do  especially  reject  the  Council  of  the  Vatican, 
as  having  lacked  both  liberty  and  the  oecumenical  character,  and  the  dogmas 
which  it  decreed  we  reject  as  being  the  consecration  of  all  the  errors  and  abuses 
previously  introduced  into  the  Church  Catholic. 

"  We  ask,  as  our  fathers  in  the  faith  asked,  a  reformation  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  both  in  her  pastors  and  in  her  flock.  We  think  such  a  refomi  more 
necessaiy  and  more  urgent  to-day  than  ever  before,  because  of  the  very  obstinacy 
with  which  it  is  denied  to  us,  and  because  of  the  intolerable  excess  to  which  our 
woes  have  reached.  We  do  not  deny  the  wholesome  development  of  later  times; 
but  we  think  that,  in-order  to  bring  about  an  effective  refomiation,  it  is  indispens- 
able to  go  back  to  the  age  which  preceded  the  division  of  the  East  and  the  West, 
and  we  think  it  is  on  the  basis  of  the  first  eight  centuries  that  it  will  be  possible 
first  to  prepare  and  then  to  carry  out  the  wished-for  reunion  of  the  different 
Christian  communions. 

"  Nothing  could  move  us  to  separate  ourselves  from  the  Catholic  Church  for 
the  purpose  of  founding  a  new  sect;  we  acknowledge  the  lawful  authorities  which 
represent  that  Church ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  we  assert  our  right  and  our  duty  to 
resist  arbitrary  and  a  fortiori  iniquitous  decrees,  which  can  in  nowise  bind  the 
conscience  of  a  Christian. 

"  In  the  tumultuous  and  essentially  transitory  condition  in  which  the  Catholic 
Church  now  is,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  various  committees  organized  throughout  her 
length  and  breadth  to  agree  upon  a  uniform  direction  to  be  given  to  the  move- 
ment of  resistance  and  reformation,  and  to  make  arrangements  for  the  assem- 
bling of  a  truly  free  and  oecumenical  coimcil,  and  for  the  choice  of  pastors 
faithful  to  the  ancient  faith,  and  to  that  spirit  of  charity  and  liberty  which  should 
reien  in  the  Church  of  Christ." 


Extract  from  a  Leading  Article  of  "La  Libertd,"  of  Rome,  upon  the  Pope's 
Letter  to  Cardinal  Antonelli. 

Upon  the  sixteenth  of  June  last,  the  twenty-sixth  anniversary  of  his  election, 
the  Pope  publicly  addressed  to  his  cardinal  secretary  of  state  a  long  letter,  in 
v/hich  he  set  forth  the  condition  to  which  the  Papacy  had  been  reduced  by  the  loss 
of  the  temporal  power ;  and  declared,  in  the  most  formal  and  emphatic  manner,  the 
utter  impossibility  of  any  reconciliation  whatever  between  the  Vatican  and  the 
Kingdom  of  Italy.  On  the  20th  of  June  there  appeared  in  the  "Liberia,"  a 
moderate  and  influential  Roman  journal,  a  leading  article,  from  which  we  extract 
the  following  : 

"  In  the  exercise  of  their  rights,  the  Italian  government  has  proceeded  with  a 
moderation  of  which  histoiy  offers  no  other  example.  The  lavi^  of  the  Guarantees, 
in  vain  abused  and  derided  by  the  Vatican,  bears  witness  that,  on  our  side,  there 
has  been  a  serious  and  honest  intention  to  respect  not  only  the  Catholic  religion, 
but  even  the  unfounded  claims  of  the  Pope.  Italy  has  done  what  no  other 
Catholic  power  has  ever  conceived  of  doing, — the  dogma  of  the  infallibility,  the 
cause  of  so  much  trouble  in  other  countries,  has  not  encountered  in  Italy  any 
opposition  whatever ;  the  bishops  have  literally  inundated  the  Peninsula,  govern- 
ing their  dioceses  at  their  own  discretion,  and  everywhere  promoting  feelings 
hostile  to  the  government ;  an  unchecked  liberty  has  been  left  to  the  Catholic 
press,  asking  them  only  to  respect  the  common  law ;  and  the  pulpit  has  not  been 
subjected  to  the  least  surveillance ;  everywhere  have  been  freely  organized 
associations,  which  are  in  fact  a  permanent  threat  to  the  government.     In  fine, 


21 

alljhas  been  done  to  assuage  the  wrath  of  the  Vatican ;  ^to  inspire  it  with  senti- 
ments a  little  more  Christian ;  to  induce  it  to  abandon  the  ruthless  war  which 
it  intends  to  wage  against  the  nation. 

"  Well,  then,  the  Vatican  answers  us  that  all  this  is  nothing ;  that  what  we 
have  done  is  worth  nothing;  that  to  satisfy  it  we  must  leave  Rome;  if  not,  war  ! 

"  It  is  clear  that,  even  were  we  to  leave  Rome,  the  same  Vatican,  with  imper- 
turbable constancy,  would  give  us  notice  to  vacate  the  Marches  and  Umbria, 
which  it  would  then  claim  to  govern  at  its  own  discretion ;  that  it  would  review 
and  reform  our  laws;  in  line,  that  it  would  itself  command  eveiy where;  if  not, 
war,  always  war  ! 

"  Was  ever  such  a  situation  imagined  ?  To  what  else  should  Italy  be  finally 
reduced,  but  to  condemn  itself  to  death  ?  Ourselves  to  destroy  what  we  have 
built  up  ?  It  is  therefore  plain  that— unless  we  are  ready  to  put  ourselves  in  that 
position — the  time  has  come,  or  is  about  to  come,  when  to  the  challenge  which 
the  Vatican  sends  us  it  will  be  necessary  to  answer  in  terms  which  have  the 
same  signification. 

"  Our  loyalty  cannot  be  called  in  question,  since  it  is  attested  by  the  manner 
in  which  we  came  to  Rome,  by  the  laws  in  favor  of  the  Church  which  we  have 
enacted,  and  which  have  not  kindled  a  civil  war.  The  responsibility  of  what 
shall  happen  will  certainly  not  fall  upon  us,  but  upon  those  who  have  provoked, 
on  our  part,  a  legitimate  defence. 

"  We  can,  indeed,  delay  awhile ;  we  can  prosecute  loyally  the  experiment 
which  we  are  making,  not  without  continual  sacrifice ;  but  if,  in  the  counsels  of 
the  Vatican,  the  idea  of  war  continues;  if  the  means  for  cariying  it  on  are 
gathered  there ;  if  from  thence  everything  is  put  in  operation,  by  deceiving,  to 
raise  the  populations  ;  in  fine,  if  that  which  ought  to  be  the  symbol  of  peace  and 
concord  in  the  world  neither  knows  how  nor  wishes  to  be  other  than  the  symbol 
of  strife  and  of  discord,  we  shall  be  compelled  to  prepare  ourselves  for  defence, 
putting  forth  an  energy  at  least  equal  to  that  of  the  attack.  And  perhaps  Provi- 
dence, in  its  inscrutable  decrees,  itself  prepares  this  struggle,  in  order  that  from  it 
Catholicism  may  emerge  stronger  and  purer,  no  longer  defiled  by  those  blind  and 
grasping  passions  which  would  make  of  it  a  political  party  and  an  instrument  of 
worldly  domination." 


Extract  from  a  recent  Letter  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Latigdon. 

In  my  report  I  believe  I  mentioned  my  pui-pose  of  soon  visiting  some  of  our 
North-Italian  reforming  friends.  In  fulfilment  of  this  purpose,  I  made  a  short 
and  hurried  trip  to  Lombardy. 

In  this  trip  I  saw  not  a  few  of  the  reforming  ecclesiastics  of  whom  I  have 
often  spoken,  and  I  heard  from  and  of  several  more.  I  was  impressed  on  every 
side  with  the  toning  up,  the  increased  decision  manifested  by  them,  and  the  good 
results  in  the  way  of  mutual  intercourse  and  common  action  which  had  grown 
out  of  the  Conference  held  at  Verona  in  November,  1870.  They  told  me  of  visits, 
correspondence,  and  consultations, — things  which  were  altogether  new.  With- 
out an  exception,  it  was  the  conviction  of  every  one  with  whom  I  spoke,  that  a 
serious  crisis  was  rapidly  approaching,  which  at  furthest  could  be  postponed  only 
until  the  death  of  the  present  Pope,  and  for  which  all  were  earnestly  preparing, — 
a  crisis  in  which  the  Government,  whether  disposed  to  do  so  or  not,  would  be 
constrained  by  the  Providence  of  God,  making  use  of  the  policy  of  the  Vatican  on 
one  side,  and  of  the  indignation  of  the  people  on  the  other,  to  protect  and  aid 
them. 

I  myself  am  quite  of  this  opinion,  and  I  cannot  but  recognize,  as  evidence  of 
the  growing  definiteness  of  the  issue,  the  appearance  upon  the  stage  of  action 
of  two  men  to  whom  I  must  specifically  refer. 

The  first  is  Ruggiero  Bonghi,  of  whom  I  have  before  incidentally  spoken,  in 
my  report  for  187 1,  as  the  Relator e  of  the  committee,  which  reported  to  the 


22 

Chamber  of  Deputies  upon  the  famous  law  of  the  Papal  guarantees.  I  have 
never  met  him,  and  therefore  cannot  speak  of  him  from  personal  knowledge;  but 
he  is  said  to  be  a  man  of  very  considerable  ability,  enlarged  views,  and  knowl- 
edge of  affairs,  of  activity  and  industry,  and  quite  an  exception  among  Italian 
politicians, — a  sincere  Christian  and  Catholic.  That  he  exercises  a  decided 
influence  in  political  circles  is  evident.  But  his  most  remarkable  characteristic 
is  his  tremendous  power  of  work.  He  is  director-in-chief  of  the  Milan  Perseve- 
ranza,  the  largest,  the  most  expensive,  and  one  of  the  most  influential  papers  in 
Italy.  He  is  also  the  director  of  the  N^itova  Antologia,  a  Plorence  monthly 
review,  and,  I  believe,  of  a  newspaper  in  Naples  besides.  He  seems  ever  to  be 
engaged,  more  or  less  prominently,  in  drawing  up  papers  and  reports,  and  in 
committee  work  for  Parliament.  He  is  continually  going  to  and  fro,  even  during 
the  session,  between  Rome,  Milan,  Florence,  and  Naples,  yet  never  absent  from 
his  duties  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies. 

About  two  months  since  this  Deputy  Bonghi,  in  an  editorial  in  the  Perseve- 
ranza,  took  the  Government  roundly  to  task  for  their  bad  policy  as  well  as  injustice, 
in  ignoring  and  abandoning  the  liberal  and  reforming  clergy  in  the  Catholic 
Church.  In  that  paper  for  June  17th,  he  introduced  the  first  of  a  series  of 
letters  by  an  ecclesiastic,  of  whom  I  shall  speak  presently,  in  a  way  that  implied 
the  strongest  sympathy  for  that  class  of  the  clergy,  expressing  a  hope  that  this 
example  would  be  followed  by  many  more,  calling  upon  them  to  speak  out 
boldly  and  plainly,  and  offering  the  columns  of  his  journal  as  a  means  of  access 
to  the  public. 

The  other  to  whom  I  refer  is  the  ecclesiastic  whose  letters  were  thus  introduced 
in  the  Persei'eranza.  Two  only  have  thus  far  appeared,  although  more  are  prom- 
ised. They  are  only  signed  Fra  Guisto,  but  the  director  says  of  the  writer : 
"  He  is  one  of  the  most  pious,  the  most  highly-cultivated,  the  most  exemplaiy  of 
Italian  priests,  and  one  of  the  most  elevated  in  rank.  This  we  can  affirm,  while 
we  are  not  at  liberty  to  give  his  name." 

The  letters  themselves,  indeed,  indicate  a  person  of  culture,  learning,  and 
piety ;  one,  too,  having  or  having  had  intimate  personal  relations  in  the  very 
highest  ecclesiastical  circles.  They  are  conservative ;  they  enter  into  no  detail 
of  needed  reform  beyond  the  necessity  of  the  frank  abandonment  of  all  claim 
to  the  temporal  power;  but  they  confess  so  humbly  the  corrupt  condition  to 
which  the  Church  has  been  reduced,  the  extent  to  which  the  most  sacred  spiritual 
interests  have  been  sacrificed  to  the  lust  of  worldly  power,  and  the  need  of 
thorough  reform  and  restoration  to  its  pure  original,  that  it  is  no  wonder  that, 
coming  from  such  a  quarter  as  is  their  apparent  source,  these  letters  have  already 
attracted  great  attention,  awakened  speculation  upon  their  authorship,  and  sugges- 
ted to  some  of  the  reforming  clergy  that  they  may  be  about  to  find  a  leader  even 
in  the  sacred  college  itself.  I  have,  for  my  own  part,  absolutely  no  suspicion  of 
the  source  from  which  these  letters  emanate.  I  vouch  only  for  their  character  as 
letters,  and  for  the  interest  which  they  seem  to  have  awakened,  as  the  papers  say, 
"  under  every  reserve." 

In  Bologna  I  found  Professor  Cassani  engaged  in  something  of  a  contest  with 
the  new  archbishop  of  that  city,  apropos,  of  course,  to  the  Rinnovamento  Cattolico, 
Professor  Cassani's  position,  however,  as  the  occupant  of  a  chair  in  the  University 
of  Bologna,  under  a  Government  appointment,  gives  him  a  certain  independence, 
of  which  he  well  knows  how  to  avail  himself,  and  he  is  defending  himself  with 
perfect  coolness,  as  well  as  with  a  thorough  knowledge  of  his  canonical  rights. 

I  also  visited  the  venerable  Count  Tasca  on  his  bed  of  sickness,  finding  him 
much  changed  from  what  he  has  been  in  physical  strength,  but  the  same  childlike, 
Christian  spirit.  He  has  firmly  resisted  all  the  attempts  of  the  neighboring  priests 
to  approach  him,  and  to  avail  themselves  of  his  hour  of  weakness  to  extract  from 
him  a  retraction  and  confession  of  repentance  for  his  "  heresies"  and  it  was  my 
privilege,  upon  the  fourth  day  of  July,  to  administer  to  him,  according  to  the 
forms  of  our  Church,  what  was,  I  know,  to  him  "  the  most  comfortable  Sacrament 
of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ." 


TREASURER'S    REPORT. 
October  i,  1871,  to  September  30,  1872. 

RECEIPTS. 

The  Rev.  W.  R.  Whittingham,  D.D.,  Baltimore,  Md $100  00 

The  Rev.  George  Leeds,  D.D.,  Grace  Church,  Baltimore,  Md 100  00 

"               "            "              (Offerings  at  public  meeting  at  Grace  Ch.,  Cct.  II, '71)  13088 

The  Rt.  Rev.  G.  T.  Bedell,  D.D.,  Gambler,  Ohio 50  00 

Mr.  J.  W.  Andrews,  Columbus,  Ohio 5  00 

The  Right  Rev.  A.  C.  Coxe,  D.D.,  Buffalo,  Western  N.  Y 200  00 

Prof.  Francis  Philip  Nash,  Geneva,  Western  N.  Y 100  00 

The  Rev.  W.  Stevens  Perry,  D.D.,  Geneva.  Western  N.  Y 10  00 

The  Rev.  Benjamin  I.  Haight,  D.U.,  New  York 50  00 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Rylance,  D.L).,  .  ew  York 500 

The  Rev.  G.  H,  Houghton,  D.  D.,  New  York 25  00 

The  Rev.  G.  H.  Houghton,  D.D.  (offerings  at  public  raeeting  Ch.  of  the  Transfig- 
uration, N.  Y.,  Nov.  26,  1871) 67  87 

Mr.  J.  W.  .Alsop,  N.  Y.  (per  Frederick  Chauncey) 50  00 

Mr.  W.  M.  Goodrich,  Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y 50  00 

The  Rev.  A.  Z.  Gray,  New  Vork  . .  100  00 

The  Rev.  W.  H.  Hare,        "            5  00 

Mr.  E.  G.  Fabbri,                "            2500 

Mr.  G.  Albinola,                   "           (per  E.  G.  Kabbri) 2500 

Mr.  J.  S.  M.                          "            2000 

Mr.  C.  L.  Cammann,          "           5000 

Mrs.  L.  F.  Batelle,              "           .  2500 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Schenck,  D.  O.,  St  Ann's  Church,  Brooklyn,  L   1 200  00 

The  Rev.  C.  H.  Hall,  D.D.,  Holy  Trinity  Church,  Brooklyn,  L.  I 100  00 

The  Rev.  Benjamin  H.  Paddock,  D.D. ,  Grace  Church,    "              9300 

"                "•                     "           (offerings  at  public  meeting,  Dec.  I,  1871) 5700 

Mr.  Thomas  MessenKer,  Brooklyn,  L.  1 100  co 

Mr.  C.  R.  Marvin,                  "                  100  00 

Mr.  W.  G.  Low,                      "                  100  00 

Mr.  J.  A.  King,  Great  Neck,  L.  1 5°  00 

The  Rev.  E.  M. Van  Deusen,  D.D.,  Grace  Church,  Utica,  Central  N.  Y 34  44 

Mr.  H.  A.  Moss  and  Mrs.  Moss,  New  Berlin,  Central  N.  Y 15  00 

The  Rev.  Charles  R.  Hale,  Auburn,  Central  N.  Y 60  00 

Mrs.  P.  D.  Twiggs,                     "               "           "                 (per  Rev.  C.  R.  Hale)..  1000 

Mr.  Jbo.  Mills  Hale,  Phillipsburgh,  Central  Pennsylvania           ,,               „          . .  10  00 

Miss  Julia  L.  Hale,                "                    "                '"                       ,,              ,,          ..  1000 

Miss  Mary  £.  Hale,               "                     "                 "                        ,,               „           ..  1000 

The  Rev.  L.  Coleman,  Mauch  Chunk,  Central  Pennsylvania 50  00 

The  Rev.  E.  A.  Hoffman,  D.D.,  St.  Mark's  Church,  Philadelphia 150  00 

The  Rev.  J.  A.  Harris,  St.  Paul's  Church,  Chestnut  Hill,  Philadelphia 147  95 

Mr.  George  S.  Kirkham,  Philadelphia  (per  the  Rev.  J.  A.  Harris) 20  00 

Mr.  H.  H.  Houston,                  "                             "             "         "       5000 

S.  K.  Ashton,  M.D.,  Philadelphia 100  00 

The  Rev.  James  Saul,  Philadelphia 10  00 

Mr.  John  Welsh,  Philadelphia  (per  the  Rev.  A.  Z.  Gray)  100  00 

Trinity  Church,  Bergen  Point,  N.  J.,    "             "         "      5000 

Mr.  J.  C.  Garthwaite,  Newark,  N.  J 5  00 

Mr.  Nathan  Matthews,  Boston,  Mass 100  00 

Mr.  E.  R.  Mudge,              "           "      100  00 

Mr.  B.  T.  Reed,                  "           "      (per  the  Rev.  Dr.  Twing) 100  00 

The  Rev.  S.  O.  Seymour,  Pawtucket,  R.I S  00 

A  member  of  Grace  Church,  Providence,  R.  L  (per  the  Rev.  W.  H.  Hare) i  00 

The  Rev.  J.  W.  Brown,  Christ  Church,  Detroit 5°  00 

The  Rev.  J.  I.  Bliss,  Bennington,  Vermont 10  00 

J.  J.  Jacocks,  Windsor,  North  Carolina i  00 

Total  oflFerings  from  Oct.  i,  1871,  to  Sept.  30,  1872  (of  which  $1,908.70  was  received 

from  Oct.  I,  1871  to  Dec.  30,  1871) I3,i9g  14 

Balance  in  bank  as  per  last  report,  Oct.  i,  1871 167  67 

$3,366  81 


24 


ADVANCES  TO  MEET  CURRENT  EXPENSES. 


The  Rev.  C.  R.  Hale $ioo  oo 

The  Rev.  Geo.  Leeds,  D.  D loo  oo 

The  Rev.  J.  Andrews  Harris 80  00 

Loan  by  Treasurer 650  00 

3    93°  °o 


Total  receipts  for  general  purposes $4,296  81 

Note. — The  following  loans  to  the  Treasurer,  included  as  receipts  in  published 
report  of  Oct.  i,  1871,  have  been  cancelled  as  donations  to  the  Commission  : 

Henry  Chauncey,  New  York $500  00 

W.  M.  Goodrich,  Poughkeepsie 150  00 

$650  00 

[disbursements — GENERAL    FUND. 

Salary  for  Secretary,  October  1,1871,  to  Sept.  30,  1872 $3,000  00 

Travelling  expenses  for  Secretary  from  Europe  to  General  Conven-   [...-ia 

tion,  and  returning  home 477  50 

Printing  reports,  circulars,  postages,  expenses  of  public  meetings 236  90 

Deposits  in  Union  Trust  Company 583  41 

$4,296  81 

LIABILITIES. 

Outstanding  bills I89  52 

Salary  of  For.  Secretary  for  quarter  beginning  Oct.  i,  1872  (pledged in  advance)..      750  00 
Loaned  by  Treasurer 650  00 

$1,489  52 
Less  cash  on  deposit 583  41 

Balance  required $906  11 


JAMES  S.  MACKIE, 

New  York,  October  i,  1872.  Treasurer. 

ADDITIONAL   OFFERINGS   FOR  THE   SUPPORT  OF   SPECIAL  WORK  IN  ITALY,  CONNECTED   WITH   THE 
GENERAL   OBJECTS   OF   THE    COMMISSION. 

Through  the  Rev.  Charles  R.  Hale: 
The  Rev.  Charles  R.  Hale,  $15  :  Mrs.  P.  D.  Twiggs,  $10— Auburn,  N.  Y.    Mrs. 

R.  C.  Hale,  $10;  John   Mills  Hale,  $10;  Miss  L.  C.;Hale,  $20;  Miss  J.  L. 
^  '^WHale,  $25;  Miss  M.  E.  Hale,  $25— Philipsburgh,  Pa.     Mrs.  Edward  Ship- 

•gp"  pen,  Philadelphia,  $5.     G.  P.  Bissell,  Harttord,  Ct.,  $10 $13000 

Through  Mr.  William  M.  Goodrich  : 
Mr.  William  M.  Goodrich,  $3  ;  Mrs.  F  .  B.    Morse,  $70— Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y. 

The  Rt.  Rev.  J.  B.  P.  Wilmer,  D.D.,  $10;  Mrs.  Richardson  and  Col.   E. 

Forsley,  $20  ;  A.  P.  Cleveland,  $10 ;  Dr.  Watkins,  $2  ;  Mrs.  W.  F.  Adams, 

$10 — New  Orleans,  La 125  00 

Mrs.  E.  N.  Biddle,  Philadelphia 30  00 

The  Rev.  James  Saul,        "  100  oi 

Mrs.  S.  O.  Hoffman,  New  York 2500 

Mr.  E.  H.  Allen,  Providence,  R.  1 50  00 

Mr.  H.  W.  Nelson,  Boston S  00 

Reported  by  the  Rev.  W.  C.  Langdon,  as  remitted  directly  to  him  : 

J.  D.  Wolfe,  New  York $200 

Stewart  Brown,    "  , 300 

Mrs.  C.  S.  Spencer 200 

700  00 

Total  of  special  contributions $i,i7S  00 


SUPPLEMENT 


TO  THE   REPORT   OF  THE 


ITALIAN  CHURCH  REFORMATION  COMMISSION.* 


Florence,  October  31,  1872. 
The  Revs.  Albert  Z.  Gray  and  Charles  R.  Hale,  Hovie  Secretaries,  etc. 
Rev.  and  Dear  Brethren, 

After  long  delay — partly  in  consequence  of  my  absence  in  Germany,  and 
partly  because  of  duties  more  immediately  pressing — I  resume  my  letters,  the 
last  of  which  was  dated  July  26th. 

In  continuing  to  inform  the  Commission  of  the  state  and  progress  of  religious 
affairs  in  Italy,  let  me,  first  of  all,  say  frankly  that  I  must  abandon  the  attempt  to 
confine  myself  exclusively  to  Italy.  To  discuss  an  international  question  as  if  it 
were  purely  local, — to  treat  of  a  general  Catholic  movement  as  though  it  had  a 
wholly  isolated  and  independent  life  and  histoiy  in  each  several  nation,  or,  at  all 
events,  in  Italy, — to  watch  and  follow  a  European  struggle  as  it  surges  around 
me,  now  in  one  direction,  now  in  another,  and  yet  to  speak  only  of  what  occurs 
on  this  side  of  the  Alps, — is  an  utter  impossibility.  I  repeat,  therefore,  what  I 
have  said  before, — let  no  more  be  said  (in  spite  of  the  name  of  our  Commission) 
of  an  "  Italian  Reform  Movement."  The  expression  now  involves  an  anachron- 
ism. We  are  in  the  midst  of  a  wide-spreading,  general  European  struggle 
between  the  Catholic  and  the  Papal  or  Ultramontane  sections  of  the  Latin 
Churches  of  this  continent.  Let  events  take  place  where  they  may,  on  one  side 
of  the  Alps  or  on  the  other,  in  Germany,  in  Switzerland,  or  in  Italy,  they  are  all 
none  the  less  incidents  a,nd  parts  of  one  and  the  same  great  revolution, — the  same 
great  struggle  between  the  past  and  the  future  of  Latin  Christendom.  It  is  the 
uprising  of  piety  and  learning,  of  patriotism  and  practical  common-sense,  repre- 
sented by  the  universities  and  the  laity,  and,  to  some  extent,  by  the  lower  clergy, 
against  the  concentrated  sacerdotalism  of  the  Roman  See  and  of  its  enslaved 
episcopate.  I  will  continue  as  best  I  may  to  inform  the  Commission  of  the  part 
which  Italy  is  taking  in  this  struggle,  or  of  this  struggle  as  it  is  felt  in  Italy. 

The  Old  Catholic  Congress  at  Cologne  has  been,  of  course,  the  event  of  this 
Fall ;  and  it  has  served  two  purposes.     It  has  given  far  more  clearness,  breadth, 

*  At  a  meeting  of  the  Italian  Church  Reformation  Commission,  held  in  Trinity  Chapel, 
New  York,  October  30,  1872,  the  Home  Secretaries  were  instructed  to  have  some  further 
information  as  to  the  Reform  Movement  shortly  expected  from  the  Foreign  Secretary, 
with  the  letter  addressed  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Langdon  to  the  Rev.  Prof.  Dollinger  in  August 
last  (seepage  7),  printed  as  a  supplement  to  the  Report  of  the  Commission  then  in  type. 
The  tollowmg  changes  should  be  noted  in  the  list  of  members  of  the  Commission  : 
Page  3 :  add  the  names  of  The  Rev.  John  Andrews  Harris,  Mr.  Charles  L.  Cammann, 
and  Mr.  Henry  R.  Mygatt.  Mr.  George  R.  Shoenberger,  of  Cincinnati,  has  recently 
been  appointed  member  of  the  Diocesan  Committee  for  Ohio  (see  page  4).  For  The 
Rev.  W.  R.  Whittingham,  D.D.,  page  23,  read  The  Rt.  Rev.  "W.  R.  Whittingham,  D.D. 


26 

and  solidity  to  the  religious  convictions  and  purposes  of  the  Old  Catholics  ;  and  it 
has  definitely  connected  the  future  restoration  of  Christian  unity  with  those  prin- 
ciples, and  with  the  success  of  the  movement  itself.  Heretofore  critics  on  either 
side  have  made  much  of  the  inconsistencies  in  the  position  of  the  Old  Catholics, 
forgetting,  as  it  seemed  to  me,  that  a.  transitional  position  is  necessarily  inconsist- 
ent ;  that  the  gradual  and  successive  realization  of  inconsistencies,  and  the 
gradual  and  successive  elimination  of  these,  when  realized,  are  the  very  condi- 
tions of  a  calm  and  gradual  reform.  Heretofore,  also,  the  Vaticanists  had  been 
left  in  almost  unchallenged  possession  of  their  vaunt,  that  the  dogma  of  Papal 
Infallibility  would  restore  the  unity  of  Christendom,  by  bringing  all  recusants 
into  reverent  submission  to  the  Holy  See.  A  most  Catholic  response  has  now 
been  given  alike  to  these  criticisms  and  to  this  vain  boast ;  and  this  is,  in  great 
part,  the  value  of  the  Cologne  Congress  to  Italy. 

Of  that  Congress  itself,  the  Church  has  already  heard  informally  from  various 
sources,  and  will,  no  doubt,  in  due  time,  hear  more  fully  from  the  venerable 
bishop  who  so  truly  represented  her  loving  interest  and  unobtrusive  Catholic 
spirit  among  the  noble  reformers  gathered  there.  It  was  my  privilege  to  be  for- 
mally invited,  quite  as  much  on  account  of  my  relations  with  the  liberal  and 
reforming  Catholics  of  Italy,  as  in  my  capacity  of  an  American  clergyman.  As 
the  time  drew  near,  several  of  my  Italian  friends  expressed  to  me  the  earnest 
desire  that  I  should  attend,  and  convey  to  their  German  brethren  the  assurances 
of  their  deep  sympathy  and  anxious  interest ;  and,  at  the  meeting  on  Thursday 
evening  for  the  reception  of  the  foreign  guests,  when  the  inquiry  was  made  whether 
any  Italian  deputies  were  present,  an  opportunity  was  courteously  offered  me,  of 
which  I  very  briefly  availed  myself,  to  discharge  this  commission. 

In  the  Congress  itself  I  took  no  part  whatever,  my  own  view  being  that  the 
opportunities  afforded  me  in  private  conversation  with  the  leaders  of  the  move- 
ment were  far  the  most  appropriate  for  any  information  I  might  be  able  to  give 
them  concerning  either  the  reformers  in  the  Italian  Church  or  the  relations  which 
I  had  been  privileged  to  hold  with  them.  Upon  these  and  cognate  subjects  I 
had  many  opportunities  of  conference  with  individuals  in  Munich  and  Bonn,  as 
well  as  in  Cologne,  both  before  the  Congress  and  during  my  return  to  Italy. 

Of  those  Italians  who  were  formally  invited  to  the  Congress,  Count  Mamiani 
and  Commendatore  Bonghi  wrote  most  cordial  letters  in  reply,  though  neither 
was  able  to  attend.  The  latter  explicitly  stated,  in  the  Perseveranza,  that  noth- 
ing but  the  pressure  of  overwhelming  duties  prevented  him  from  accepting  the 
invitation.  He  took  great  pains  to  procure  full  current  information  for  the  columns 
of  that  journal,  and  he  also  published  a  summary  account  of  the  Congress  in  the 
Nuova  Antologia  for  October.  Count  Mamiani  wrote  a  reply,  which  was  read  in 
a  German  translation,  and  which  M.  de  Pressense,  in  his  admirable  letters  to  the 
Joiirnal  des  Debats,  characterized  as  "  tres-eloquente  et  toute  penetree  de 
I'esprit  de  reforme."  The  Count  has  kindly  furnished  me  with  a  copy  of  the 
original,  which  will,  I  trust,  be  published  in  Italy,  and  to  which  I  shall  again 
take  occasion  to  refer. 

All  the  principal  Italian  papers  had  daily  telegraphic  notices  of  the  Congress 
and  of  its  doings ;  but,  with  the  exception  of  five  letters  in  the  Peiseveranza, 
from  its  Cologne  correspondent,  and  Commendatore  Bonghi's  article  just  referred 
to,  no  account  of  the  Congress  has  yet,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  been  published  in 
Italy.  Yet  it  was  the  subject  of  a  very  general  interest  here,  and  it  has  been 
discussed,  more  or  less  widely,  even  in  those  papers  which,  as  a  general  thing, 
care  least  for  religious  topics ;  and  the  effect  is  visible  in  the  marked  care  with 
which  journals  of  all  political  opinions  now  reproduce,  from  German  and  other 
sources,  every  item  of  current  intelligence  which  bears  upon  the  subject  of  the 
Old  Catholic  movement.  At  least  such  is  the  fact  of  the  papers  which  I  take  or 
see,  and  I  have  no  reason  for  supposing  them  at  all  exceptional  in  this  respect. 

A  letter  which  I  addressed  to  Dr.  von  Dollinger,  in  reference  to  the  Congress, 
just  before  the  meeting,  which  has  not  been  published  in  Italian,  and  which  is, 
therefore,  known  here  only  through  the  circulation  of  a  small  number  of  English 


27 

copies,  or  from  the  comments  of  the  German  press,  has  also  been  very  courte- 
ously discussed  in  connection  with  the  Congress  and  the  Old  Catholics. 

For  instance,  the  Ferseveratiza  of  September  22d  contained  a  leading 
article  of  four  columns  length  upon  the  Congress,  in  which  the  principles  of  this 
letter  were  cited  and  warmly  endorsed.  The  Diritto — an  influential  and  lead- 
ing "  organ  of  the  Italian  Democracy  " — on  the  contrary,  upon  the  7th,  8th,  and 
9th  of  October,  published  three  long  articles  upon  the  same  subject,  the  second 
of  which  was  occupied  almost  entirely  with  a  veiy  fair  and  detailed  analysis  of 
my  letter,  and  the  third  with  a  confutation  of  its  argi.mients  and  principles,  the 
writer  urging  that  Christian  reunion  is  neither  practicable  or  desirable  ;  and  that 
religious  reform  is  only  to  be  sought  in  breaking  wholly  with  Catholicism  and 
upon  extreme  Protestant  principles.  The  articles  are  able,  and  I  owe  my  antag- 
onist sincere  acknowledgments  for  his  perfect  fairness  and  extreme  personal 
courtesy.  An  article  in  the  yoitrnal  de  Rome  of  October  i8th,  which,  after 
briefly,  but  most  flatteringly,  referring  to  my  letter  and  to  me,  expresses  the 
belief  that  the  Old  Catholic  movement  in  GeiTnany,  with  which  the  writer 
admitted  that  he  was  imperfectly  acquainted,  "  had  become  a  political  arm  of 
which  Prussia  was  availing  herself;  a  fact  which  singularly  diminished  its 
importance."  This  article  was  preceded  by  a  leader  upon  the  "  Religious  Agita- 
tion "  of  the  times;  and  I  immediately  wrote  a  reply  to  them,  which  was  pub- 
lished upon  the  23d.  Again,  a  writer  in  the  Naples  Pungolo  gives  a  tolerably 
full  resume  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Congress,  referring  rather  sarcastically  to 
me  as  the  Italian  representative,  and  expressing  a  general  disappointment  and 
dissatisfaction  with  what  he  regarded  as  its  excessive  consei'vatism.  Of  course, 
other  journals  are  equally  ready  to  point  out  its  Protestant  tendencies. 

These  references  sufficiently  illustrate  the  general  effect  of  the  Cologne  Con- 
gress upon  the  Italian  mind,  so  far  as  it  has  found  expression  in  the  press.  I 
should  be  glad  to  supplement  them  by  a  number  of  extracts  from  my  private 
correspondence,  from  the  several  letters  I  have  received  thanking  me  for  the 
witness  that  I  had  borne  to  Italian  sympathy  with  the  Gennan  reformers,  asking 
fuller  and  more  detailed  information,  or  criticising,  or  expressing  gratification  at 
the  calm  and  slow  deliberation  of  their  course.  But,  as  there  is  nothing  like 
ipsissinia  verba,  I  will  make  two  or  three  quotations. 

A  venerable  cathedral  dignitaiy  writes  me :  "  I  have  read  with  great  pleasure 
that,  among  others  at  the  Congress,  were  present  the  most  learned  Bishop  of 
Lincoln,  your  own  Bishop  of  Maryland,  and  our  friend  Lewis  Hogg.  And  I 
was  very  glad  that  you  said  that  many  Italians  were  also  present  in  heart  and 
spirit." 

An  estimable  parish  priest  writes  me  from  Venetia :  "  I  have  experienced  no 
little  satisfaction  at  hearing  of  your  return  among  us,  as  also  in  the  allusions  you 
make  to  the  Cologne  Congress,  concerning  which  I  know  very  little,  from  a  few 
lines  accidentally  met  with  in  a  journal  wholly  unconcerned  with  religious  ques- 
tions. Therefore,  I  should  be  rejoiced  to  know  something  more,  especially 
about  the  resolutions  and  practical  conclusions  ;  about  the  so  greatly  desired 
union  of  the  confessions  dissident  from  the  Roman  ;  about  the  Old  Catholics 
themselves,"  etc. 

Another,  a  Prevosto  and  prominent  priest  in  a  Lombard  diocese,  who,  before 
the  Congress,  had  been  very  urgent  that  I  should  do  eveiything  in  my  power  to 
prevent  the  attendance  of  the  Anglican  bishops,  now  writes  :  "  I  am  gratified 
with  the  course  taken  by  the  Congress  at  Cologne,  since  I  had  feared  that  it 
would  determine  upon  the  immediate  consecration  of  a  bishop  and  the  constitu- 
tion of  a  separate  Church.  I  praise  also  the  position  taken  by  the  English 
bishop,  whose  presence,  instead  of  pressing  them  on  toward  schism,  was  an  en- 
couragement to  preserve  the  faith.  ...  I  hope  that  the  assembly  has  taken 
measures  to  keep  alive  the  question  of  the  reunion  of  the  separated  Churches. 
For  myself,  I  say  frankly  that,  after  the  Councils  of  Lyons  and  Florence,  if  they 
were  somewhat  at  fault  in  separating  themselves,  they  have  sufficiently  atoned  for 
it  by  their  desire  for  reconciliation;  and,' if  reconciliation  has  not  taken  place,  it 


has  been  the  fauk  of  Roman    curialism.      I   consider  them,  after   those   two 
Councils,  as  sister  Churches  of  the  Roman." 

But  enough  of  the  Congress.     There  are  other  topics  of  which  I  must  write, 
and  I  will  do  this  in  another  letter. 

Faithfully  yours, 

Wm.  Chauncy  Langdon. 


Florence,  November  5,  1872. 
The  Revs.  Albert  Z.  Gray  and  Charles  R.  Hale,  Home  Secretaries,  etc. 
Reverend  and  Dear  Brethren, 

Two  articles  have  lately  appeared  in  the  Journal  de  Rome,  under  the  heading, 
"  L' Agitation  Religeuse,"  giving  the  first  express  recognition,  with  which  I  have 
met  in  the  press  of  Italy,  of  the  true  character  and  tendency  of  European  politics. 
These  articles  declare  that  "  Europe  is  at  this  moment  agitated  by  a  religious 
crisis,  of  which  it  is  difficult  to  foresee  the  development,  and  still  more  the  end, 
since  it  is,  as  yet,  scarce  begun ;  "  that  "  it  would  not  be  at  all  surprising  should 
this  positive  age  terminate  with  a  religious  war ;  "  that  the  point  of  departure  of 
this  crisis  is,  on  the  one  hand,  the  Council  which  has  proclaimed  the  dogma  of  the 
infallibility,  and,  on  the  other,  the  suppression  of  the  temporal  power ;  "  that 
"  Italy,  although  the  centre  of  this  conflict,"  is  "  the  country  where  it  is  felt  with 
the  least  intensity,  and  where  the  passions  are  the  least  excited; "  where,  in  fact, 
"  ideas  of  moderation,  of  good  sense,  and  of  liberty,  seem  to  dominate  more  than 
elsewhere;"  but  where  "  it  is  necessaiy  also  to  recognize  the  fact  that,  as  we 
advance,  the  task  of  the  men  of  moderation' and  of  good  sense  will  become  more 
and  more  difiicult." 

With  some  of  the  practical  conclusions  drawn  by  the  writer  from  these  pre- 
mises I  did  not  concur ;  as  they  were  partly  addressed  to  me,  and  were  connected 
with  his  comments  on  my  letter  to  Dr.  von  Dollinger,  I  took  the  liberty  of  urging 
my  dissent  in  an  article  which  was  promptly  and  very  courteously  published,  and 
which  has  since  been  quoted  with  approbation  by  at  least  two  German  papers. 
But  in  the  main  positions  taken  by  the  JoMrtial  de  Rome,  there  was  undoubtedly 
much  truth. 

From  the  two  points  of  departure  named,  proceed  the  two  parallel,  closely 
connected,  and  yet  distinct  issues  of  this  crisis.  The  one  partakes  more  of  a 
political,  the  other  of  a  religious  nature.  The  one  concerns  the  character,  rights, 
and  privileges,  and  may  ultimately  involve  the  very  existence  itself  of  the 
Papacy ;  the  other  concerns  the  character  and  teachings  of  the  Latin  Church,  and 
may  result  in  a  Catholic  reformation  from  within  its  fold.  On  the  Ultramontane 
side  these  are  considered  but  as  one  issue, — the  defenders  of  the  temporal 
Papacy,  and  the  supporters  of  the  Papal  claims  to  infallibility,  clerical  and  lay,  are 
everywhere  the  same,  and  everywhere  bound  together  by  a  thoroughly  recognized 
unity  of  purpose.  But  on  the  liberal  side,  unfortunately,  these  are  too  often 
regarded  as  wholly  independent  questions  ;  the  one  concerning  statesmen  and 
governments,  and  the  other  concerning  priests  and  devotees  alone.  Consequently, 
while  on  the  one  side  there  is  concentration,  admirable  organization,  abundant 
means,  a  clear  perception  of  every  community  of  interest  which  might  secure  an 
alliance,  on  the  other  there  is,  so  far,  a  great  scattering  of  forces,  isolation,  and 
uncertainty  of  purpose  ;  but  they  have  with  them,  in  all  their  weakness,  progress, 
truth,  and  God.*  .   .   , 

*  From  want  of  space  we  are  compelled  to  leave  out  portions  of  this  interesting  letter.     It 
may  be  found  in  full  in  The  Churchman  for  December  14,  1872. 


29 

God  has  His  own  great  purposes  in  view,  and  He  will  accomplish  them,  and 
no  human  wisdom  nor  human  instruments  are  necessary  to  Him ;  but  humanly 
speaking,  the  future  of  Italy  depends  very  gi-eatly  upon  the  power  of  moderate 
men  to  define  clearly  to  themselves,  in  all  its  phases  and  bearings,  the  precise 
nature  of  the  position  upon  which  they  must  entrench  and  fortify  themselves 
against  the  double  assault  which  is,  perhaps,  coming  upon  them  and  their  country. 
They  are  able  to  do  this,  so  far  as  depends  upon  political  considerations,  for  the 
Italians  are  shrewd,  keen,  far-sighted  politicians, — in  political  genius  unquestion- 
ably superior  to  all  other  people  now,  as  they  have  ever  been.  Besides,  God  has, 
in  His  marvellous  providence,  so  interwoven  the  plainest  political  interests  of  the 
kingdom  with  the  accomplishment  of  His  own  purposes  for  the  Church,  that  a 
result  which  no  party  aims  at,  nevertheless  no  party  can  prevent.  Unless  the 
Papacy  transforms  itself,  and  voluntarily  sweeps  away  the  system  of  which  it  has 
so  long  been  and  is  now  the  embodiment ;  and  unless  it  renounces  the  lust  ot 
worldly  dominion  for  the  discharge  of  the  spiritual  trust  of  the  ministry  of  Christ, 
— unless  the  Papacy  voluntarily  does  this,  the  nievitable  necessities  of  self-preser- 
vation will  force  Italy,  step  by  step,  to  remove  from  her  midst,  and  to  relieve  the 
world  of  the  spiritual,  as  she  has  already  of  the  temporal.  Papacy.  Party  politics 
and  diplomacy  may  hasten  or  retard  the  issue, — they  can  do  no  more. 

Yes,  they  can  do  something  more,  and  influential  Italians  can,  individually,  do 
much  more  to  determine  what  shall  succeed — and  true  Catholic  Christianity,  with 
all  its  blessings  for  society  as  well  as  for  the  rest  of  Christendom,  or  the  cold  and 
mocking  materialism  of  infidelity.  .  .  . 

But  Italy,  with  all  her  mastery  of  the  political  elements,  has  not  yet  been 
able  to  comprehend  the  religious  elements  of  the  problem  before  her,  nor  the 
religious  issues  of  a  struggle  in  which  the  political  and  the  religious  issues  cannot 
be  separated.  Italian  statesmen  have  not  yet  before  them  that  clearly-defined 
conception  of  true  Catholicity  which  can  alone  furnish  the  key  to  their  perplex- 
ities. There  is  almost  universally  prevalent  among  educated  men  such  a  con- 
temptuous indifference  to  religion,  that  few  among  them  even  suspect,  what  we 
should  regard  so  plain  a  truth,  that  without  a  careful  study  of  its  principles 
they  cannot  comprehend  the  true  character  or  the  relations  of  a  question  which, 
to  so  great  an  extent,  turns  upon  those  principles. 

Nay,  can  even  we,  with  all  our  interest  in  them,  and  all  our  self-satisfaction,  ven- 
ture to  say  that  the  principles  of  true  Catholicity,  in  all  their  breadth  and  meaning, 
have  as  yet  been  anywhere  so  clearly  established  that  they  can  be  assumed  as 
recognized  standards  of  public  policy  ?  I  think  not.  This  is  the  work  of  the 
age  in  which  we  are  living.  This  is  the  work  upon  which,  in  their  several  meas- 
ures, Germany,  Italy,  Switzerland,  and  the  forlorn  hope  of  liberal  Catholics  in 
France,  are  now  engaged.  It  is  Italy's  present  weakness,  that  here,  where  the 
detennination  of  this  great  religious  question  of  the  age  is  of  the  greatest  imme- 
diate and  practical  importance,  precisely  here,  there  is  the  least  interest  in  the 
subject. 

Nevertheless,  out  of  the  darkness  of  the  past,  guided  by  the  political  provi- 
dence of  God,  Italy  is  slowly  toiling  toward  the  truths  which  shall  make  all  plain. 
Not  a  few  of  her  worthiest  ecclesiastics  have  advanced  far  toward  them  ;  but  the 
separation  between  the  clergy  and  the  laity  is  too  great,  and  few  hearken  to  them ; 
and  they  are  left,  each  in  his  isolation,  to  be  the  victims  of  Ultramontane  bigotry. 
The  great  German  movement  is  beginning  to  pour  a  flood  of  light  upon  the 
subject ;  and  it  has,  I  think,  to  a  considerable  extent  at  least,  arrested  attention 
among  thinking  Italians.  There  is  a  greater  readiness  to  look  around  over  a 
wider  field  for  the  materials  of  a  judgment,  and  as  they  understand  better  and 
better  what  our  Church  really  is,  what  position  she  claims  to  occupy,  and  what 
are  her  real  relations  to  Christendom,  and  the  principles  to  which  she  is  a  witness, 
her  practical  illustration  of  those  principles,  and  her  practically  Catholic  spirit 
will  be  allowed  to  have  a  weight  with  these  practical  Italian  minds,  which  would 
never  be  conceded  either  to  theological  speculations  or  to  hostile  interference  and 
dictation. 


30 

And  precisely  this — to  contribute,  so  far  as  may  be  in  our  power,  to  the  solu- 
tion of  this  great  Catholic  problem — is  the  sphere  and  opportunity  of  our  work  in 
Europe,  in  Italy,  to-day.  The  issue  of  this  Papal  question  concerns  us  deeply 
as  a  Church ;  and  a  people  who  were  so  ready  to  recognize  the  political  rights  of 
other  nations,  in  their  conduct  toward  the  temporal  Papacy,  will  not  refuse  to 
recognize  the  rights  of  other  Catholic  Churches  to  interest  themselves  in  their 
ecclesiastical  policy.  If  we,  patient  and  courteously,  wait  until  alike  the 
grounds  and  the  spirit  of  our  mission  here  are  generally  understood,  as  they 
are  already  by  not  a  few,  we  shall  be  able,  I  doubt  not,  to  contribute  no 
inconsiderable  aid  toward  the  growth  of  that  truly  Catholic  conception  of  the 
Church  which  will  solve,  at  last,  Italy's  most  perplexing  and  most  dangerous 
politico-ecclesiastical  problems ;  and  in  that  solution  complete  the  boon  which, 
in  the  suppression  of  the  temporal  Papacy,  she  began  to  confer  upon  Christendom. 

Faithfully  yours, 

Wm.  Chauncy  Langdon. 


Florence,  November  9,  1872. 
The  Revs.  Albert  Z.  Gray  and  Charles  R.  Hale,  Hotne  Secretaries,  etc. 
Rev.  and  Dear  Brethren, 

My  last  letter  brought  me  back  to  the  immediate  purpose  of  my  writing, — that 
of  reporting  upon  the  current  progress  and  development  of  Italy's  great  contest  with 
the  Papal  system.  It  was  a  long  episode,  but,  I  believe,  a  necessary  one ;  and  it 
will,  I  hope,  make  more  plain  the  bearing  of  future  events  as  they  occur. 

If  there  is  a  newspaper  in  Italy  whose  directors  comprehend  the  religious 
aspects  of  this  contest,  it  is  the  Perseveranza,  of  Milan,  whose  editor-in-chief, 
you  remember,  is  Commendatore  Bonghi.  There  are  other  papers  animated  by  a 
thoroughly  sound  intention, — papers  which  are  equally  removed  from  the  fanati- 
cism which  accepts  as  dejide  all  that  the  Vatican  teaches,  and  from  that  which 
rejects  indiscriminately  the  Church,  its  authorities,  and  its  faith,  all  taken 
together,  if  not  even  Christianity  itself;  but  it  is  rare  to  find  any  that  have  clear 
and  positively  defined  religious  or  ecclesiastical  grounds  for  so  doing.  The  Per- 
severanza, combating  at  the  same  time  the  Ultramontanism  of  the  Jesuit  organ  at 
Turin,  and  the  radical  onslaught  of  a  leading  Neapolitan  publicist,  could  thus 
clearly  point  out  the  real  identity  of  their  position :  "  The  scoricc,  which  the 
passions  and  the  prejudices  of  the  clergy  have  added  to  the  pure  metal  of  the 
faith,  are  for  Signor  Settembrini  and  for  the  Unitd  Cattolica  alike  the  faith  itself." 
Identifying  the  scoriae  and  the  pure  metal  of  the  faith,  the  Unitd  Cattolica  regards 
it  all  as  equally  priceless ;  identifying  them  in  like  manner  on  his  part,  Signor 
Settembrini  would  regard  all  as  equally  -worthless ;  but,  clearly  discriminating 
between  them,  the  Perseveranza  would  rejoice  at  the  coming  of  some  refining 
power,  capable  of  separating  the  pure  metal  from  the  scoriae,  that  the  one  may 
be  preserved,  while  the  other  is  cast  away;  lest  Italy,  in  her  indignant  reaction 
from  the  impositions  to  which  she  has  been  subjected,  reject  all  together. 

I  have  found  in  this  same  journal,  also,  the  most  correct  appreciation  of  the 
relative  position  of  our  Church,  as  among  the  various  Christian  communions.  It 
is  but  a  short  time  since  learned  ecclesiastics  and  cultivated  laymen  heard,  with 
surprise,  that  we  paid  any  reverence,  as  a  Church,  to  religious  antiquity;  that  we 
even  pretended  to  an  episcopate,  or  recognized  the  great  early  creeds  ;  or,  indeed, 
that  we  were  any  otherwise  to  be  considered  than  as  one  of  a  hundred  rational- 
istic sects,  which,  from  time  to  time,  had  broken  off  from  the  Catholic  Church,  to 
devise  a  new  faith  of  their  own.  Surely,  we  are  not  so  unknown  or  despised  as 
we  once  were,  when  such  a  paragraph  can  be  found  as  this,  which  I  translate 
from  the  Perseveranza^ s  editorial,  on  the  then  approaching  Congress  of  Cologne  : 


31 

"  Christendom,  if  attentively  considered — although  it  has  been  divided  and 
redivided  among  so  many  sects — is,  nevertheless,  found  to  admit  this  principal 
division  :  on  the  one  part  stand  the  Latin,  the  Greek,  and  the  Anglican  ;  on  the 
other,  all  the  other  beliefs  and  opinions  which  take  the  name  and  assume  the  title 
of  Christian.  The  great  dividing  wall  between  the  first  three  and  all  the  others 
is  this, — that  the  first  three  claim  to  have  a  doctrine  derived  from  the  cardinal 
books  of  Christianity,  and  preserved  by  an  ecclesiastical  organization,  whose 
origin  reaches  back  even  to  Christ  himself.  All  the  others,  on  the  contrary,  how- 
ever they  may  claim  to  reproduce  in  themselves,  more  or  less,  the  primitive 
Church,  agree  in  being,  in  their  present  form,  an  innovation,  sprung  up  in  some 
one  of  the  eighteen  centuries  that  Christianity  has  thus  far  lived  ;  and  they  subject 
its  fundamental  doctrines  to  a  criterion  of  interpretation  and  of  jiianipulation, 
wholly  rational  and  human,  which,  at  will,  alters  them,  reduces  them,  dilutes  them  ; 
and  some  have  little  less  than  melted  away  altogether." 

I  will  not  go  so  far  as  to  assert  that  this  can  be  taken  as  a  fair  illustration  of 
the  light  in  which  our  Church  is  now  generally  regarded  among  educated  Italians, 
even  among  those  interested  in  such  subjects  ;  but  I  will  say,  that  such  language 
is  veiy  far  from  being  as  strange  now  as  it  would  have  been,  in  such  a  paper,  five 
or  six  years  since;  and,  also,  that  such  a  discriminating  judgment  of  our  Church 
cannot  have  appeared  in  a  leader  of  the  Ferseveraftza,  without  its  effect  upon  the 
liberal  press  and  the  thinking  classes  of  Italy.  To  this  change  I  think  I  may 
fairly  claim  that  my  own  contributions  to  the  Italian  press — my  efforts  to  bring 
under  their  consideration  the  writings  of  some  of  our  ablest  bishops,  and  the 
utterance  of  our  Church  in  reference  to  the  great  movements  of  the  age — and  my 
personal  intercourse  and  correspondence  with  Italian  publicists,  have,  more  or  less, 
contributed ;  doubtless,  much  more  indirectly  than  directly.  It  is  something  to 
have  the  opportunity,  if  no  more,  of  simply  provoking  the  desire  to  seek  informa- 
tion upon  a  subject,  concerning  which  Italians  have  generally  been  as  indifferent 
as  ignorant. 

Indeed,  the  paragraph  just  quoted  is  the  more  gratifying  at  this  time,  inasmuch 
as  it  is  to  laymen  and  to  public  men  that  we  must  look  for  the  most  active 
participation  in  this  religious  and  ecclesiastical  contest  between  Italy  and  the 
Papacy, — certainly  for  the  present.  The  Law  of  the  Papal  Guarantees  has  effec- 
tually crushed  the  liberal  clergy,  and,  until  some  modification  in  their  legal 
position,  or  some  great  change  in  the  ecclesiastical  policy  of  the  Government, 
their  way  is  barred.  This  I  took  pains  to  explain  fully  in  my  last  report,  last  June. 
The  Papal  authorities  have  not  neglected  the  power  and  opportunity  furnished 
them  by  parliament,  to  put  down  all  reforming  views  with  a  stern  hand  ;  nor  do 
they  omit  to  be  detailed  and  explicit.  On  the  loth  of  October,  a  formal  Decree  of 
the  Congregation  of  the  Index  was  affixed  to  the  doors  of  certain  Roman 
churches,  prohibiting,  condemning,  and  anathematizing,  by  name,  twenty-one 
specific  works  of  recent  publication,  of  which  fourteen  were  German  (Old 
Catholic,  of  coui-se),  one  Latin,  one  French,  and  five  Italian.  Of  the  latter,  the 
principal  were  the  Rinnovamento  Caitolico,  and  an  ecclesiastical  treatise  by 
Professor  Cassani,  the  director  of  that  periodical.  Another,  who  has  written 
vigorously  and  often  upon  these  subjects,  finds  himself  obliged  to  choose  between 
submission  and  such  an  expulsion  from  his  post  and  from  the  Church  as  will 
utterly  deprive  him,  at  once,  of  his  means  of  living  and  of  all  influence.  His 
only  mode  of  communicating  with  the  public  will  therefore  be,  as  he  and  others 
have  not  unfrequently  done  heretofore,  to  entrust  their  manuscript,  in  confidence, 
to  me  for  publication. 

The  Italian  clergy  will,  evidently,  be  compelled  to  wait  until  the  results  of  the 
German  movement,  and  the  progress  of  political  events,  open  the  way  for  them 
once  more.  And  perhaps  they  may  not  have  long  to  wait.  As  one  of  them 
lately  wrote  me :  "  Our  times  are  not  to  be  measured  by  the  history  and  with  the 
metre  of  past  ages ;  to-day  everything  hurries  forward ;  ten  years  now  is  what  a 
century  was  once." 

The  ministry  are  pledged  to   present   to   the    coming   parliament  the  long 


32 

deferred  law  for  suppressing  the  religious  corporations  in  the  province  and  city  of 
Rome ;  and  it  is  notorious  that  they  cannot  agree  among  themselves  as  to  what 
that  law  should  be.  The  interests  of  Italy,  and  the  popular  demands,  cannot  be 
reconciled  with  what  some  regard  as  judicious  concessions  to  Franco-Papal 
irritability.  Indeed,  it  might  well  puzzle  any  ministry  to  apply  the  ecclesiastical 
laws  of  Italy  to  Rome,  in  the  face  of  the  Law  of  the  Papal  Guarantees.  The 
general  dissatisfaction  with  the  ecclesiastical  policy  of  the  present  government  is 
veiy  manifest ;  the  Opposition  has  had  the  tact  to  make  themselves,  as  a  party,  the 
representatives  of  the  wide-spread  impatience,  and  have  announced  that,  at  the 
opening  of  parliament,  the  ministry  are  to  be  interpolated  upon  the  subject,  and 
a  ministerial  crisis,  apropos  to  ecclesiastical  questions,  is,  therefore,  veiy  probal^le. 
I  am  sorry  to  say  that  I  fear  a  reaction  from  too  much  deference  to  the  Papacy,  to 
too  little  respect  for  religion  of  any  kind. 

A  ray  of  promise,  however,  comes  to  us  amid  this  gloom.  It  may  be  remem- 
bered by  some,  that  Article  XVIII.  of  the  Guarantee  Law  left  it  for  future  legisla- 
tion to  determine  what  should  be  done  with  the  sacred  edifices,  and  other 
property  of  the  Church,  of  which  the  State  then  renounced  all  control ;  and 
there  always  remained,  therefore,  the  power  of  remedying  much  of  the  evil  of 
that  law  by  a  wise  disposition  of  this  Church  property.  A  commission  appointed 
ad  hoc,  and  consisting  of  Deputies  Mauri,  Bonghi,  and  De  Filippo,  published, 
about  a  month  ago,  the  project  of  law  which  they  propose  to  report  to  parliament; 
and,  should  such  a  project  become  a  law,  it  may,  and  no  doubt  will,  sooner  or 
later,  lay  the  foundations  of  such  a  lay  power  in  the  Church,  and  offer  to  the 
better  clergy  such  possibilities  of  lay  support,  as  will  be  a  blessing  indeed  for  the 
Church,  to  say  nothing  of  the  state  of  Italy. 

The  principal  provisions  of  this  project  are :  The  creation  of  diocesan  and 
parochial  "  deputations,"  the  one  of  seven,  and  the  other  of  five  or  three  mem- 
bers, according  to  the  size  of  the  parish.  Of  these  "  deputations,"  the  bishop 
and  the  parish  priest,  respectively,  are  to  be  ex  officio  members,  the  other 
members  of  either  being  clergy  and  laymen,  the  former  elected  by  the  clergy 
whose  rights  they  represent,  and  the  latter  by  the  provincial  and  communal 
councils  from  "  among  the  Catholic  citizens  most  noted  for  their  probity  and 
intelligence."  In  the  parochial  deputations  the  laity  will  always  have  the 
majority ;  in  the  diocesan,  they  would  need  but  the  concurrence  of  a  single 
clerical  member  to  secure  the  same  control.  Into  the  hands  of  these  deputations, 
finally,  is  to  be  committed,  in  ti'zist,  the  entire  property  of  the  Church.  Such  a 
project  is,  of  course,  capable  of  being  greatly  improved  or  in  great  part  nullified, 
not  only  by  amendment,  but  by  the  minor  regulations  which  may  be  annexed  to 
it ;  but,  as  it  stands,  it  is  the  promise  of  a  most  beneficial  measure ;  and  its 
discussion  in  parliament  will  be  most  interesting,  and  will  throw  not  a  little  new 
light  upon  these  obscure  and  perplexing  ecclesiastical  questions. 

Much  more  lately,  Switzerland  has  given  Italy  some  excellent  suggestions 
for  improving  even  upon  this  project.  The  Council  of  State  of  Geneva  has 
announced  the  measures  which  it  intends  to  propose  to  the  authorities  of  the 
Canton,  as  required  by  the  conditions  of  their  contest  with  the  Roman  Curia,  in 
the  affair  of  Bishop  Mermillod.  These  propositions  include  the  election  of  the 
parish  priests  by  their  i-espective  parishioners.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  proposed 
measure  will  be  adopted  in  Switzerland,  and  that  the  example  will  not  be  lost 
upon  Italy.  Humanly  speaking,  her  only  hope  of  escape  from  her  ecclesiastical 
embarrassments  is  in  raising  up  an  intelligent  and  religious  lay  power  in  the 
Church,  which  can  and  will  support  the  better  disposed  and  most  loyal  of  the 
clergy  against  episcopal  and  curial  despotism.     Speriaino  ! 

Parliament  is  summoned  to  meet  upon  the  20th  of  this  month.  We  shall, 
therefore,  know  more  of  the  probable  course  of  events  before  very  long. 

Faithfully  yours, 

Wm.  Chauncy  Langdon. 


33 

The  Restoration  of  Christian  Unity  and  the  approaching  Alt-Cath- 
olic Congress  at  Cologne.  A  letter  addressed  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Dollinger 
by  the  Rev.  Williatn  Chatmcy  Langdon. 

''To  the  Rev.  Prof.  J.  J.  Ignatms  Dollinger,  S.T.D.,  D.C.L.,  etc.,  Munich. 

"  Reverend  and  Venerated  Sir, 

In  a  late  course  of  lectures,  you  have  solemnly  proposed  to  the  Christian 
world  the  problem  of  the  restoration  of  Christian  unity.  You  have  done  this, 
moreover,  it  is  my  conviction,  at  a  time  when  the  same  Holy  Spirit,  who  has 
thus  made  you  His  instrument  in  summoning  the  Churches  to  enter  upon  the 
solution  of  this  sacred  problem,  has  also  prepared  them  to  give  to  your  words  a 
hearing  and  a  response  for  which  they  have  not  earlier  been  ready.  Though 
partial  tentatives  have  indeed  been  made  heretofore,  as  you  have  yourself  re- 
minded us,  yet  never  before,  since  divisions  began  to  multiply  in  Christendom, 
has  such  reunion  been  really  within  the  reach  of  sober  hopefulness.  The  Alt- 
Catholic  movement,  the  growth  of  a  Catholic  reform  party  within  the  bosom  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  has  now  at  last  made  it  possible  to  take  a  practical 
step,  at  least  ?«  the  direction  of  reunion  ;  and  this  first  step  once  taken  in  the 
fear  of  God,  He  who  has  put  this  within  our  power  will  assuredly  reveal  to  His 
Church  the  next. 

"  The  precise  nature  of  this  first  step  to  be  thus  taken,  of  the  first  measures  to 
be  thus  adopted,  will  no  doubt  depend,  not  so  much  upon  the  genius  and  convic- 
tions of  any  one  man  whom  all  are  prepared  to  follow,  as  upon  the  commingling  of 
many  convictions,  the  interchange  of  many  diverse  and  even  conflicting  views, 
the  struggle  of  antagonistic  aims  and  purposes,  and  the  gradual  elimination,  un- 
der the  guidance  of  the  one  great  common  aim,  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God, 
of  all  that  is  erroneous  or  inconsistent  with  the  realization  of  that  end.  From  the 
very  nature  of  the  case  it  could  not  be  otherwise.  Under  these  circumstances, 
it  seems  to  me  the  duty  of  every  one  who  is  brought,  by  the  providence  of  God, 
into  special  contact  with  this  blessed  work,  from  whatever  direction,  to  cast  into 
the  common  treasury  of  thought,  from  which  this  great  restoration  is  to  be  carried 
on,  whatever  offering  God  may  have  put  within  his  power,  trusting  that  He  will 
accept  and  bless  it  in  its  measure. 

"  The  glowing  words  of  that  faithful  Christian  orator,  the  Pere  Hyacinthe, 
have  already  warmed  our  hearts  anew  with  something  of  his  own  pure  and  child- 
like trust ;  the  able  pamphlet  of  the  Abbe  Michaud,  'Programme  de  Refortne 
de  r Eglise  a'  Occident^  has  already  set  a  good  example  by  entering  formally  upon 
this  discussion ;  and,  more  lately  still,  a  pamphlet,  by  a  Russian  layman,  which  I 
have  not  had  the  good  fortune  to  read  in  the  original,  but  of  which  I  have  seen 
an  English  analysis,  discusses  the  policy  which  their  own  principles  logically  dic- 
tate to  the  Alt-Catholics.  The  writer  regards  them  as  shut  up  to  immediate  re- 
union with,  or  rather,  perhaps,  absorption  in,  the  Oriental  Orthodox  Church;  a 
conclusion  with  which  the  late  vicar  of  the  Madeleine  seems  also  in  principle  to 
concur. 

"  The  courteous  reference  to  the  Anglican  Churches  made  in  the  programme 
adopted  by  the  Munich  Congress ;  and,  still  more,  the  very  cordial  invitations 
which  have  been  extended  to  three  eminent  prelates,  and  to  other  members  of 
those  Churches,  to  assist  at  the  approaching  Congress  at  Cologne,  are  evidence,  if 
the  spirit  of  your  whole  course  had  left  any  need  for  other  proof,  that  you  are  by 
no  means  disposed  to  regard  them  as  excluded  from  the  discussion  of  these  ques- 
tions. And  the  kind  reception  given  to  a  letter  which  I  took  the  liberty  of  ad- 
dressing to  you  a  year  ago,  and  which  was,  I  believe,  instrumental,  in  some  de- 
gree, in  removing  misunderstandings  between  yourselves  and  us,  encourages  me 
to  address  you  again  upon  the  subject  now  before  the  Church.  However  devoid 
of  novelty  in  themselves  the  views  may  be  which  I  here  venture  to  submit  to  the 
consideration  of  Alt-Catholics,  yet  so  little  are  we  known  to  you  as  yet,  it  may 
be  something  new  that  such  views  should  come  from  an  Anglican  source  ;  and  if 
they  thus  serve  but  the  purpose  of  a  single  link  between  us,  provisionally  useful 


until  stronger  ties  be  knit,  this  intrusion  upon  public  attention  and  your  own,  will, 
I  trust,  be  deemed  justified. 

"  There  are  two  ways  of  seeking  reunion  : 

"  The  first  is  that  each  several  Christian  communion  should  come  forward,  in 
the  person  of  some  devoted  champion,  with  the  proofs  that  his  Church  most  faith- 
fully represents  the  great  Catholic  ideal  of  the  Church  of  Christ ;  and  that,  there- 
fore. Christian  unity  should  be  sought,  not  only  on  the  part  of  the  Alt-Catholics, 
but  on  that  of  all  others  differing  from  her,  in  a  frank  and  full  conformity  with 
her,  acceptance  of  her  principles,  and  entrance  into  her  communion.  This  is  the 
old  way  ;  this  is  the  old  theory  of  Christian  unity  upon  which  Rome  has  acted 
ever  since  division  first  began.  There  has  been  no  time  for  the  last  thousand 
years  in  which  reunion  could  not  have  been  attained  by  Christendom,  could  all 
others  be  but  induced  to  submit  to  and  be  absorbed  by  her  ;  and  doubtless  neither 
Oriental  nor  Anglican  nor  Protestant  Churches  have  ever  lacked  those  ready  to 
better  Rome's  example,  and  prove  that  she  had  ever  erred,  not  in  the  principle  it- 
self so  much  as  in  its  application.  The  pamphlet  of  the  '  Russian  layman,'  al- 
ready referred  to,  proceeds  upon  this  veiy  principle;  and  did  the  Anglican 
Churches  agree  with  him  as  to  the  mode  by  which  reunion  was  to  be  sought, 
neither  that  of  England  nor  that  of  America  would  be  at  any  loss  for  able  trea- 
tises bequeathed  her  by  the  past,  or  for  living  divines  ready  to  write  new  ones,  if 
these  were  not  enough,  in  demonstration  that  the  Christian  world  has  no  hope  for 
unity,  and,  of  course,  the  Alt-Catholics  no  refuge  now,  save  in  conformity  to  the 
Anglican  type  of  Catholicity.  Shall  we,  then,  gather  at  Cologne,  from  the  east 
and  from  the  west,  from  the  north  and  from  the  south,  to  renew  this  strife  of  cen- 
turies ?  Shall  the  learning  of  Moscow  be  pitted  against  that  of  Lincoln,  and  the 
logic  of  the  New  World  against  that  of  the  Old  ?  Nay,  upon  what  grounds  could 
either  Geneva  or  the  Vatican  itself  be  excluded  from  such  a  discussion?  Is 
Christian  reunion  to  be  sought  in  this  manner,  or  has  the  Holy  Spirit  at  length  re- 
vealed to  us  a  more  excellent  way  ? 

"  That  other  way  would  seem  to  be  the  searching  for  the  great  underlying 
cause  and  principle  of  division,  and  removing  that.  No  one  better  than  yourself 
can  judge  how  far  I  am  correct  in  feeling  that  deep  beneath  all  differences  in 
doctrine,  all  the  strife  of  ecclesiastical  ambition,  all  the  mixed  motives  which  have 
swayed  men  and  communities,  has  ever  lain  the  one  great  primal  error,  the  one 
great  primal  wrong  which  is,  in  the  last  analysis,  the  cause  of  all  the  divisions  in 
Christendom, — the  attempt  to  suppress  the  natural  manifestation,  the  inevitable  de- 
velopment, of  different  types  of  the  Christian  character.  If  there  is  any  truth 
which  physical  science  has  impressed  upon  us,  it  is  the  wondrous  unity  in  more 
wonderful  variety  which  the  Maker  has  preserved  in  all  His  works.  But  Chris- 
tendom has  scarcely  learned,  as  yet,  that  the  same  law  obtains  in  the  spiritual 
world;  that  different  types  of  religious  feeling,  different  types  of  religious  thought, 
different  types  of  religious  life  must  exist  there  as  well,  more  broadly  marked  as 
between  different  races,  or  between  different  ages,  or  even  between  different  so- 
cial classes  of  the  same  race  and  age  ;  and  in  infinite  variety  of  modifications  as 
between  different  individuals  ;  and  that,  therefore,  the  unity  of  the  Church  of 
Christ  is  to  be  sought,  not  in  the  conformity  of  all  others  to  any  one  single  type, 
but  in  that  harmonious  combination  of  them  all  which  science  teaches  us  is  per- 
fectly consistent  with  the  most  faithful  allegiance  to  all  really  fundamental  relig- 
ious principles.  And  has  it  not,  then,  been  the  blind,  narrow-minded,  forcible 
violation  of  this  law  of  Christian  unity  which  has  been  the  cause  of  all  our  di- 
visions ? 

"  What  is  the  dogma  of  the  personal  infallibility  of  the  Pope,  but  the  logical 
maturity  of  this  great  fallacy  of  ages  ?  And  in  what,  let  me  add,  does  this  dogma 
differ,  save  only  in  localization,  from  the  common  principle  which  has  been 
practically  held  and  implicitly  acted  upon  in  eveiy  branch  of  Christendom  ?  The 
Oriental  Church  has  had,  and  I  fear  still  has,  just  as  firm  a  faith  in  her  infallibility 
as  the  Latin  Church  has  in  hers;  and  the  disciple  of  Geneva  just  as  firm  a  faith 
in  the  infallibility  of  the  logic  of  John  Calvin  as  the  disciple  of  Loyola  in  that 


35 

of  the  utterances  of  Pius  IX.  The  Vatican  has,  after  all,  in  this,  not  so  much  dif- 
fered from,  as  been  bolder  than,  the  other  Churches.  Rome  has  formulated  her 
claim  to  infallibility;  they  have  not  formulated  theirs;  but  it  will  make  little 
difference  in  its  practical  i^esults  if  all  act  on  the  assumption  of  their  several 
claims.  Nor,  in  my  conviction,  will  any  end  be  attained,  beyond  the  stirring  up 
of  strife  anew,  if  the  principle  of  infallibility  be  saved,  and  the  question  be  per- 
mitted to  extend  itself  only  to  the  determination  of  its  locality  ;  the  question,  that 
is,  whether  the  infallibility  which  you,  who  have  renounced  your  own,  are  to  ac- 
cept as  better  founded  than  that  of  the  Vatican,  be  it  that  of  Moscow  or  of  Can- 
terbury, of  Utrecht  or  Wittemberg. 

"  No,  none  can  meet  you,  nor  can  any  profitably  enter  with  you  into  a  dis- 
cussion of  the  terms  of  Christian  reunion,  who  do  not,  like  yourselves,  come  with 
their  protest  in  their  hand  against  all  claims,  formulated  or  not,  explicit  or  implicit, 
to  the  infallibility  of  any  separate  part  or  portion  of  divided  Christendom.  Un- 
less we  can  meet  upon  the  assumption  that  our  several  Churches  jnay,  each  and 
either  of  them,  have  erred  in  so7ne  respects,  and  may  be  in  sortie  particulars  occu- 
pying a  partial  and  one-sided,  rather  than  a  truly  Catholic  position ;  that  each  and 
either  of  those  communions  from  which  we  are  separate,  and  of  which  we  are 
probably  far  more  ignorant  than  we  are  aware,  may  have  in  trust  precious  truths 
which  it  may  profitably  learn  from  others,  and  may  offer  precious  examples  which 
it  may  profitably  follow;  nay,  that,  abstractly  considered,  it  is  more  than  proba- 
ble that  such  it  the  case, — unless  we  can  meet  in  this  spirit,  we  had  better  not 
meet  at  all. 

"  I  have  spoken  of  the  divisions  of  Christendom  as  resulting  from  the  con- 
flict of  distinctive  types  of  Christianity,  for  whose  harmonious  development  due 
provision  was  not  permitted  in  the  Church.  But  even  in  these  divisions,  per- 
haps we  may  hereafter  be  able  to  look  back  and  see  that  good  has  been  brought 
out  of  evil,  by  what  I  reverently  call  the  Divine  distribution  of  spiritual  labor. 
To  one  race,  the  Greek  or  Eastern — which  was  best  fitted  for  it  by  its  peculiar 
genius — was  assigned  the  cultivation  of  the  theological ;  to  another,  the  Latin,  the 
development  of  the  organic  and  practical ;  to  a  third,  the  Teutonic,  the  preser- 
vation of  the  spiritual  elements  of  Christianity.  Each  was  permitted  to  lay  un- 
due, or,  at  all  events,  disproportionate  emphasis  upon  one,  to  the  comparative 
neglect  of  the  complementaiy  elements ;  and,  under  the  influence  of  these  diverg- 
ing tendencies,  to  separate ;  until,  one  after  another,  all  had  fulfilled  their  several 
and  successive  functions  in  the  religious  training  of  the  world,  and  the  time  should 
come  which  should  restore  the  unity  of  the  Church,  and  make  her  at  once  Ortho- 
dox, Catholic,  and  Evangelical. 

"  At  all  events,  the  present  great  classifications  of  Christendom  are  very  like 
the  results  of  such  a  distribution  of  functions  in  the  past ;  and  the  strength  and 
weaknesses  which  severally  distinguish  what  may  be  generically  termed  Oriental, 
Latin,  and  Teutonic  Christianity,  are  such  as  ought  to  impress  us  deeply,  on 
every  side,  with  the  profoundest  sense  of  our  need  of  each  other,  before  the  Church 
can  bring  the  world — heart  and  mind  and  life  alike — into  subjection  to  the  Cross 
of  Christ. 

"Cr?V«/ff/ Christianity,  however  it  mayor  may  not  have  actually  remained 
faithful  to  the  theological  teachings  of  the  early  Church,  is  assuredly  firm  in  the 
intention  and  belief  that  it  has  done  so.  It  is,  in  spirit,  the  very  embodiment  of 
historic  conservatism ;  but  it  has  remained  for  ages,  as  theology  indeed  should  re- 
main, but  as  the  Church  in  other  respects  should  not,  impassive,  unprogressive. 
It  has,  I  believe,  brought  all  classes  of  her  children  within  the  influence  of  her 
training  as  no  other  Church  has  done  ;  and  it  is  now  to  Christendom,  and  would 
be  more  and  more,  if  its  influence  could  reach  but  further  amid  the  great  and 
rapid  changes  of  Western  thought  and  life,  a  precious  element  of  repose,  of 
strength,  and  of  unchangeableness ;  but  it  is  not  distinguished  for  piety,  for  a 
missionary  spirit,  or  for  active  Christian  work  in  the  world.  These  it  must,  in 
turn,  learn  from  the  West. 

^^ Latin  Christianity  alone  is  not  confined  to  any  single  race,  or  to  any  geograph- 


36 

ical  limits ;  the  Latin  Church  alone  has  any  pretensions  to  be  considered  cecumeni- 
cal.  By  virtue  of  its  broad,  catholic  spirit,  by  virtue  of  the  Latin  genius  for  organi- 
zation and  discipline,  it  has  risen  to  empire,  proclaimed  the  Church's  universality  as 
opposed  to  all  merely  local  or  national  organizations,  and  vindicated  the  great 
principle  which  Oriental  Christianity  had  placed  in  jeopardy,  that  the  laws  of  God 
are  independent  of  those  of  man,  and  far  above  them.  The  Latin  Church  has 
been  the  aggressive  power  of  Christendom,  whose  missionaiy  energies  none  ever 
rivalled ;  and  her  clergy,  take  them  as  a  class,  are  most  self-sacrificing  and  labo- 
rious. But  these  great  elements  of  religious  power  have  been  abused  and  cor- 
rupted in  her  hands ;  and  the  gigantic  ecclesiastical  despotism  of  Rome  which 
has  resulted,  has  reduced  the  Churches  of  her  communion  to  spiritual  slaveiy ;  it 
has  sacrificed  its  moral  power  to  a  lust  for  worldly  domination ;  it  has  sought  to 
place  the  Church's  merely  temporal  interests,  and  the  dicta  of  ecclesiastical  au- 
thority, upon  an  equal  footing  with  the  divine  law  in  its  relations  with  the  civil 
authority  ;  it  has  almost  crushed  out  the  spirituality  of  religion,  and  an  intelligent, 
manly  faith  in  revealed  Christianity,  and  replaced  them  by  a  coml^ination  of  a 
cold  materialism  and  a  mechanical  outward  conformity  ;  it  has  alienated  the  edu- 
cated and  thinking  classes,  while  it  has  sunk  the  ignorant  into  a  debased  super- 
stition. I,  for  one,  do  not  hesitate  to  admit  myself  a  debtor  to  the  Church  of 
Rome,  during  my  five  years'  residence  in  Italy,  for  instruction  in  great  truths, 
which,  with  all  her  offences  against  religious  freedom,  morality,  and  doctrinal 
purity,  she  unquestionably  yet  holds  in  trust  for  a  reunited  Christendom  ;  but  it  is 
no  less  true  that  Latin  Christianity  needs  to  learn  once  more  from  the  East  and 
from  the  North — from  Oriental  and  from  Teutonic  Christianity — truths  as  impor- 
tant, nay,  as  we  think,  far  more  so,  of  which  it  has,  as  a  Church,  almost  ceased 
even  to  feel  the  value. 

"  Teictoiiic  Christianity,  finally,  has  best  preserved  and  cherished  that  religious 
life  of  the  heart,  that  deep-seated  spirituality  that  makes  of  religious  truth  not  a 
mere  outward  law, but  an  inner  governing  principle;  and  which  sanctifies  a  sound, 
and,  perhaps,  atones  for  an  unsound  theology.  Its  hold  upon  the  intellectual  and 
cultured  laity  is  unquestionably  greater  than  that  of  any  other  type  of  Christianity  ; 
its  general  standard  of  morality  is  far  superior.  It  has  developed  the  religious 
energies  of  individuals,  and  the  devotedness  of  unobtrusive  individual  charity, 
to  a  degree  which  is  little  suspected  by  other  communions,  and  indeed  can  be 
fully  known  to  God  alone.  Its  faith  is  an  intelligent  faith  resting  on  the  assured 
convictions  of  the  reason,  and  it  is  strong  in  its  victory  on  a  hundred  battle-fields, 
where  it  has  met  and  repulsed  every  assault  of  every  form  of  infidelity.  Its  free, 
unfettered  spirit  has  thrown  itself  forward  into  the  solution  of  all  the  new  relig- 
ious and  ecclesiastical  questions  which  the  progress  of  science  and  of  religious 
histoiy  is  propounding  to  the  world.  But  all  this  has  been  secured,  to  a  very 
great  extent,  at  the  sacrifice  of  a  due  regard  for  the  great  principles  of  early  Chris- 
tian theology,  and  for  the  outward  and  visible  organization  of  the  Church  of 
Christ.  Its  free  spirit  has  often  degenerated  into  license  of  religious  thought  and 
speculation  ;  and  here,  therefore,  we  find  divisions  unknown  elsewhere,  and 
large  sections  subdivided  into  jarring  sects  without  number,  each  with  its  own 
newly  wrought-out  creed,  and  each  with  its  own  special  theories  of  ecclesiasti- 
cal government, — waging  an  internecine  warfare  which  is  a  stumbling-block  to 
the  heathen,  and  a  scandal  in  the  eyes  of  the  irreligious  and  scoffers  around  us. 

"  In  fine,  to  the  Orthodox  Churchman,  the  essence  of  Christianity  consists  in 
being  scrupulously  sound  in  his  creed  ;  to  the  Roinan  Catholic,  in  his  faithful 
adherence  to  his  Church,  and  to  its  centre  of  unity  at  Rome ;  to  the  Christian  of 
the  Teutonic  type,  it  consists  in  the  state  of  the  heart  before  God. 

"  That  these  types  have  largely  intemiingled,  that  there  have  been  exceptional 
periods  in  the  history  of  each  race,  and  exceptional  sections  in  each  Church,  is 
no  more  than  we  should  expect.  Nor  are  these  ecclesiastical  boundaries  by 
any  means  coincident  with  the  ethnological  boundaries  from  which  they  are, 
on  the  whole,  derived.  Especially  it  is  true  that  the  Latin  type  of  Christianity, 
as  in  the  case  of  Latin  civilization  before  it,  once  wholly  included  the  Teutonic 


37 

Churches,  and  it  still  largely  extends  itself  among  the  various  nations  of  the 
Teutonic  stock ;  in  some  occupying  the  ground  almost  exclusively,  and  in  others 
vigorously  contending  with  other  dominant  communions.  Nor  are  the  influence 
of  its  genius,  and  the  value  of  the  principles  of  which  it  seems  to  have  been  the 
peculiar  defender,  unfelt  even  by  those  who  refuse  to  acknowledge  its  supremacy. 
"While  in  the  violence  of  its  protest  against  the  evils  into  which  Latin  Christianity 
had  fallen  a  large  portion  of  Teutonic  Christendom  broke  away  into  what  we 
should  agree  in  regarding  as  the  opposite  extremes  of  Protestant  disorganization 
and  theological  instability,  the  Church  of  England — the  Church,  in  fact,  of  that 
people  in  whom  the  Latin  race  was  most  largely  grafted  upon  the  Teutonic  stock — 
made  the  effort  at  least  to  pursue  a  more  sober  and  a  more  Catholic  course ;  to 
refuse  submission  to  Papal  supremacy,  and  to  reform  herself  from  the  corruptions 
which  had  crept  into  the  Western  Church,  without  separating  from  the  Church 
itself,  or  even  from  the  communion  of  the  Roman  See.  How  far  she  was  faithful 
to  this  programme,  and  how  far  she  may,  in  your  opinion,  have  departed  from  it, 
are  questions  upon  which  I  will  not  enter  here.  Sufficient  for  my  present  design 
that  such  was  her  purpose  then,  and  that  it  is  the  firm  and  conscientious  conviction 
of  her  ablest  divines  and  most  devoted  children  now,  that  she  was  guided  by  the 
Holy  Spirit  to  be  substantially  faithful  to  this  purpose,  and  that,  if  practical  sepa- 
ration from  the  rest  of  the  Western  Church  resulted,  as  in  the  parallel  case  of  the 
Church  of  Utrecht  afterward,  it  was  not  her  desire,  nor,  as  we  humbly  believe  and 
trust,  her  fault.  The  Church  of  England,  in  fact,  anticipated  your  present 
protest,  and  claims  to  be  the  '  Old  Catholic  Church  '  of  that  ancient  realm.  The 
characteristics  and  this  claim  of  the  Church  of  England,  as  she  thus  reformed 
herself,  are,  in  all  save  in  respect  to  her  relations  with  the  State,  substantially 
those  of  her  daughter  Church  of  America,  and  of  the  other  Anglican  Churches 
scattered  now  throughout  the  world. 

"  If  there  be  any  truth  or  force  in  this  analysis  of  the  ecclesiastical  history  of 
the  past  and  of  the  present  relations  of  the  several  divided  parts  of  ^Christendom, 
there  are  some  conclusions  immediately  resulting  which  cannot  safely  be  neg- 
lected by  any  of  those,  on  whatever  side,  who  would  contribute  toward  the  resto- 
ration of  a  true  and  stable  unity  between  them. 

"  Firstly.  That  such  a  reunion  of  Christendom  can  be  fully  attained  only  when 
these  three  diverse  types  of  Christianity  can  all  meet  once  more,  each  coming 
from  its  own  diverse  direction  and  with  its  diverse  characteristics  ;  and  that  it 
cannot,  therefore,  be  even  inaugurated  successfully  by  the  independent  action  of 
any  one  of  these,  but  only  by  mutual  conference  between  the  representatives  of 
them  all. 

-T^  "  Secondly.  That  such  representatives  should  approach  each  other,  not,  on  the 
one  hand,  with  the  aim,  or  even  the  desire,  to  subject  the  other  Churches  to  their 
own;  nor  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  to  renounce  their  own  specific  type  of 
Christianity,  but  to  confess  the  respective  extremes  to  which  their  respective 
Churches  have,  in  their  separation,  severally  tended, — indeed,  the  grave  errors  into 
which  they  have  severally  fallen ;  and  willing  and  prepared  to  learn  of  each 
other  how  to  remedy  that  which  is  wanting  on  either  part,  while  they  communi- 
cate, each  to  the  other,  whatever  elements  of  real  truth  or  strength  may  be  more 
especially  their  own. 

"  Thirdly.  It  follows,  as  a  corollaiy  of  this,  that  the  unity  to  be  sought  for 
the  future  is  not  such  an  uniformity  as  should  aim  at  the  suppression  of  all  such 
typal  differences  in  the  Church,  or  which  should  attempt  to  compound  them  into 
one.  This  would  be  to  repeat  the  fatal  error  of  the  past,  and  but  to  clear  the 
ground  for  new  divisions.  We  shall  all  need  to  bear  in  mind,  as  the  Bishop  of 
Lichfield  so  well  expressed  it,  in  a  late  message  to  the  American  Church,  « that 
independence  is  not  disunion ; '  that  the  bond  of  mutual  interference  is  not 
necessaxy  to  that  of  mutual  intercommunion ;  and,  above  all,  that  a  real  Christian 
unity  does  not  require,  nay,  will  not  permit,  consistently  with  its  preservation  (as 
Rome  is  now  learning  to  her  cost),  any  attempt  at  an  enforced  uniformity.  A 
frank  recognition  of  the  diversity  which  must  of  necessity  exist  between  different 


38 

types  of  Christianity,  and  the  provision  for  their  harmonious  development  and 
mutual  infltunce  over  each  otJiej-,  as  the  only  proper  means  of  restraining  such 
development  within  due  limits,  this  is  the  condition  of  future  Christian  unity. 

"Fourthly.  That  as  it  cannot  be  expected  that  such  views  would  prevail 
generally  and  simultaneously  in  all  parts  of  Christendom  at  once,  so  the 
approaches  to  such  reunion  must  be  gradual,  beginning  with  those,  on  either  side, 
whom  circumstances  have  enabled  to  understand  and  to  appreciate  each  other 
best,  and  who  are  most  free  to  act  in  the  premises.  The  German  Alt-Catholics 
and  the  Church  of  Utrecht  belong  ecclesiastically  to  Latin  Christianity,  but  to  the 
Teutonic  race ;  the  Anglican  Churches  belong  ecclesiastically  to  the  Teutonic 
type,  but  to  that  portion  of  the  Teutonic  race  which  has  the  largest  mixture  of 
the  Latin  (and  this  is  especially  true  of  the  American  people,  who  are  a  far  more 
mixed  race  than  the  English),  and,  as  Churches,  they  have  a  close  organic 
likeness  to  the  earlier  Latin  Churches.  These  bodies,  as  representatives  of  the 
two  great  divisions  of  IVestern  Christendom,  are  clearly  those  who  might  be 
expected  first  to  recognize  the  possibility  of  restoring  Christian  unity  once  more, 
and  the  first  to  set  themselves  to  labor  to  such  an  end.  To  what  extent  there 
exists  similar  elements  in  the  Greek  or  in  the  Armenian  Church,  until  so  lately 
connected  more  closely  than  most  other  Eastern  Churches  with  the  West,  I  am 
not  sufficiently  informed  to  say.     You,  reverend  sir,  can  better  tell  than  I. 

"As  the  various  sections  of  Christendom  now  stand  toward  each  other, 
therefore,  I  can  but  feel  convinced  that  the  Church  of  Utrecht  and  the  German 
Alt-Calholics,  together  with  and  strengthened  ])y  every  element  which  they  can 
draw  to  their  side,  from  France,  from  Spain,  and  especially  from  Italy,  on  the 
one  side,  and  the  sister  Churches  of  England  and  America  on  the  other ;  of 
course,  in  joint  cooperation  with  similar  representatives  from  the  East,  if  any 
there  be  ready  to  unite  with  them  in  such  a  work  and  upon  such  principles, — 
that  these  are  they  who  can  and  who  ought  now  to  enter  soberly  and  in  the  fear 
of  God,  and  humbly  invoking  the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit  upon  the  examina- 
tion of  their  relations  to  each  other,  for  the  purpose  of  detennining  if  some  first 
step  toward  the  restoration  of  Christian  unity  cannot  now  be  taken,  some  loving 
invitation  be  addressed  by  them  to  their  Christian  brethren  on  either  side. 

"  From  all  that  I  have  thus  ventured  most  respectfully  to  urge,  it  follows  that 
the  present  possibility  of  the  restoration  of  Christian  unity  is  consequent  upon  the 
fact  that  in  the  Alt-Catholics,  or  Catholic  reformers  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Churches,  as  well  as  in  the  Church  of  Utrecht — if  I  am  right  in  thus  including  this 
Church  with  you — Latin  Christianity  finds  representatives  willing  to  meet,  for 
this  purpose,  with  those  from  whom  they  have  been  so  long  estranged.  And  not 
only  so,  but  that,  therefore,  the  issue  of  the  Alt-Catholic  hopes  of  being  instru- 
mental in  this  sacred  result  will  depend,  absolutely  and  unconditionally ,  upon 
their  power  as  a  body  to  retain  their  present  representative  position. 

"  This  conviction  is  my  ground  of  apology  for  intruding  upon  the  discussion 
of  a  question  with  which  otherwise  I  should  have,  at  this  stage  of  affairs,  no 
concern.  But  if  it  be  well  founded,  not  only  I,  but  every  one  that  looks  longingly 
forward  to  the  restored  unity  of  the  Churches,  has  a  personal  interest  in  all  that 
can  affect  the  desired  fruition  of  these  hopes.  And  I  repeat  my  conviction,  that 
the  future  usefulness  of  the  Alt-Catholic  representatives  of  Latin  Christianity 
depends  upon  their  retaining  their  distinct  individuality  as  such.  Let  them 
perfect  their  organization,  let  them  strengthen  themselves  for  their  work,  as  they 
in  their  wisdom  deem  best;  but  let  them  not  forget  that  to  renounce  formally 
their  place  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  and  to  accept  that  separation  into 
which  the  present  authorities  of  the  Church  are  only  anxious  to  drive  them, 
would  be,  not  merely  to  free  themselves  from  those  authorities,  but  also  to  sunder 
the  ties  between  themselves  and  those  who  are  with  them  at  heart,  and  who  are 
daily  drawing  nearer  and  nearer,  although  they  have  not  as  yet  felt  it  right,  or 
been  able,  to  identify  themselves  formally  with  this  movement.  This  latter  is  a 
most  serious  consideration.  There  are  great  numbers,  as  we  all  know,  in  every 
part  of  the  Latin  Church,  whose  honest  convictions  are  identical  with  yours. 


39 

This  latter  is  a  most  serious  consideration.  There  are  very  many  such,  as  I  per- 
sonally know,  in  Italy  itself,  in  the  very  heart  and  centre  of  the  Latin  Church  ; 
ecclesiastics  of  learning,  of  position,  and  of  personal  worth,  laymen  of  rank  and 
influence,  who  might  have  been  actively  cooperating  with  you  now,  but  for  the 
policy  of  a  government  which  has  not  realized  their  moral  value  to  itself;  which, 
indeed,  ignores  the  veiy  existence  of  their  allies,  and  delivers  them  into  the  abso- 
lute control  of  their  common  enemy,  the  Roman  Curia.  There  are  bishops, 
fathers  in  the  Church,  who,  in  the  secret  of  their  hearts,  feel  that  their  proper 
place  is  at  your  head,  and  leading  in  the  van  of  your  movement  to-day;  and  some 
of  whom,  I  cannot  doubt,  as  the  difficulties  of  their  present  false  position  open 
their  eyes  more  and  more,  will  yet  have  grace  to  take  their  stand  with  you.  May 
I  venture  respectfully  to  add  that  there  are  some,  even  of  those  whom  you  might 
suppose  most  likely  to  urge  your  separation  from  your  own  Church  and  union  with 
themselves,  who,  on  the  contrary,  sincerely  hope,  for  the  sake  of  the  interests  of 
future  Christian  unity,  that  you  will  wait  what,  in  His  providence,  the  Lord  God 
will  have  yet  to  say  to  His  faithful  children,  who  still  linger  behind  you  in 
submission  to  the  despotism  of  the  Roman  See.  There  are  mighty  events  yet  to 
come  ;  why  anticipate  their  influence?  You  well  know  how  many  springs  of 
action  are  held  in  restraint  on  every  side  of  you,  to  await  the  issue  of  those  events. 
Who  shall  say,  for  instance,  what  influences  will  flow  from  the  contests  that  will 
probably  arise  out  of  the  next  conclave  to  bring  your  yet  comparatively  feeble 
numbers  great  increase  of  strength? 

"  This  is  why  I,  for  one,  regret  the  counsel  of  the  Russian  layman,  and  of 
the  Abbe  Guettee,  and  why  I  regret  to  know  that  the  views  of  the  Abbe  Michaud 
incline  so  much  in  a  similar  direction. 

"This  is  why  I  have  no  parallel  counsel  to  offer  the  Alt  Catholics  on  behalf 
of  my  own  Church.  I  speak,  of  course,  upon  my  own  personal  responsibility, 
and  I  have  no  authority  to  speak  for  any  one  else  whatever,  much  less  for  my 
Church  ;  but,  so  far  as  I  know,  I  speak  but  the  common  feeling  of  all,  whether 
among  English  or  American  divines,  who  have  given  special  attention  to  this 
subject.  By  formal  union  with  either  the  Oriental  or  the  Anglican  Churches, 
you  would,  of  course,  gratify  the  self-appreciation  of  the  one  or  of  the  other;  you 
would  strengthen  them  for  future  controversy;  you  would,  doubtless,  provide  for 
many  of  your  own  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  material  necessities ;  but  pardon  me 
for  saying  frankly,  that  it  seems  to  me  you  would  fall  far  short  of  the  spiritual 
grandeur  of  your  present  position,  and  of  your  future  capabilities  for  good ;  and 
that  you  would  greatly  mar  your  power  to  contribute  to  the  restoration  of  Christian 
unity. 

"  This  is  why,  moreover,  I  deeply  regret  that  there  should  have  arisen  any 
question  relative  to  the  catholicity  of  the  purpose  of  the  German  Alt-Catholics. 
That  there  are  those  among  them  who  prefer  to  regard  their  movement  as  purely 
national,  and  who  are  disposed  to  aim  at  the  organization  of  an  independent 
German  Reformed  Catholic  Church,  rather  than  at  the  reformation  of  their  whole 
communion,  is  evident.  That  the  knowledge  of  this  tendency,  and  the  fear  lest 
it  might  prove  the  dominating  one  among  you,  has  done  much  to  check  the 
sympathy,  and  even  something  to  deprive  you  of  the  cooperation  of  your  foreign 
coreligionists,  there  is  no  doubt.  An  able  and,  upon  the  whole,  appreciative 
article,  contributed  by  Deputy  Bonghi  to  the  Florence  Nuova  Antologia  for 
October  last,  is  a  striking  illustration  of  the  truth  of  my  assertion  as  respects  the 
Catholic  reformers  of  the  Church  of  Italy. 

"  These  times  are,  indeed,  exciting,  and  events  press  upon  us  with  a  close  and 
rapid  tread,  and  all  our  hearts  are  warmed  by  the  hopes  which  they  enkindle. 
But  all  those  who  are  pemiitted  to  take  part  in  the  religious  changes  of  this 
generation  have  in  charge  a  work  too  sacred  to  be  imperilled  by  impetuosity. 
Their  steps  must  needs  be  patient  and  gradual.  One,  the  most  difficult  of  all, 
has  been  taken  already ;  for  never  before,  since  divisions  began  in  the  Church, 
have  bishops  and  leading  divines  of  such  widely  separate  communions  been 
invited  to  meet  for  such  a  purpose  as  will,  perhaps,  soon  bring  Greek  and  Angli- 


40 

can,  Dutch  and  Annenian,  to  confer  with  German,  French,  Austrian,  Italian, 
and  other  Alt-Catholics  at  Cologne.  We  have  learned  to  recognize  our  need  of 
each  other,  thus  far  at  least ;  more  formal  recognition,  and  on  a  wider  scale,  will 
follow  next ;  recognized  relations  afterward,  and  a  settled  and  definite  Christian 
unity  in  diversity  as  the  ultimate  result  in  God's  own  time. 

"  I  have,  for  my  part,  in  that  definite  result,  this  ground  of  hope,  that  now, 
at  last,  love  goes  before  logic,  and  an  irenical  spirit  which  is  in  search  of  our  more 
important  harmonies,  and  is  ready  to  lay  emphasis  upon  them,  has  taken  the 
place  of  that  polemical  spirit  which  has  rarely  effected  more  than  a  widening  of 
the  breach.  It  will  be  much  for  us  to  look  each  other  kindly  in  the  face,  and 
hear  ourselves  called  brethren;  it  will  be  much  if  we  can  provide  some  means 
of  acquiring  a  more  thorough  knowledge  of  each  other ;  it  will  be  much  if  we 
can  give  and  receive  each  other's  blessing,  in  exchange  for  all  the  bitter  maledic- 
tions of  the  past ;  it  will  be  much  if  we  can  agree,  however  informally,  upon  some 
common  principles  on  which  all  alike  may  act  in  future  measures  toward  the 
realization  of  our  present  hopes.  And  all  this — thanks  be  to  God — seems  now 
to  be  within  our  power. 

"Not  one  of  those  whom,  as  Anglican  Christians,  you  have  bidden  to  the 
approaching  Congress  at  Cologne  will  come  to  meet  you  there,  but  with  the 
feeling  that  their  steps  are  drawing  near  to  holy  ground.  In  no  less  sacred 
name  than  that  of  Christ  will  they  be  gathered  there ;  and  they  may  meet  with 
the  assurance  that  He  has  met  with  them.  Could  but  the  veil  be  lifted,  howso- 
ever slightly,  which  conceals  the  future  from  us,  so  we  might  catch  a  glimpse  of 
the  issues  which  jiiay  result  from  the  conferences  there  begun,  all  that  are  truly 
faithful,  all  that  are  truly  Christian,  of  whatever  name,  in  every  land,  would  min- 
gle their  prayers  for  the  guidance  of  those  upon  whose  meeting,  it  may  be,  so 
much  depends.  Rarely,  in  the  history  of  the  Church,  has  there  been  such  need 
of  the  wisdom  which  is  from  above ;  rarely,  perhaps,  has  such  a  blessing  waited 
upon  the  deliberations  of  Christians  as  may  await  a  wise  and  godly  issue  of  this 
conference. 

"  'O  pray  for  the  peace  of  Jerusalem;  they  shall  prosper  that  love  thee.' 

"  Faithful  to  His  great  purpose  to  which  God  has  called  them,  the  Alt-Cath- 
olics of  Gei-many,  France,  Italy,  Holland,  Austria,  and  Switzerland,  that  'now 
sow  in  tears,  shall  reap  in  joy;'  for  'he  that  now  goeth  on  his  way  weeping  and 
beareth  forth  precious  seed,  shall  doubtless  come  again  with  joy,  and  bring  his 
sheaves  with  him.' 

"  I  am,  reverend  sir,  most  respectfully 

"  Your  fellow-servant  in  Christ, 

"Wm.  Chauncy  Langdon. 
"  Muhlbach-in-the-Tyrol,  August  19,  1872." 


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